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PRINCETON,  N.  J.          «ft 

• 

.Sfc^...  , 

BL  98  .G62  1886 

Goblet  d'Alviella,  Eug  ene, 

1846-1925. 
The  contemporary  evolution 

of  reliaious  thought  in 

vs. 


■A- 

u 

/    - 

u 


* 


THE 


CONTEMPORARY     EVOLUTION 


OF 


RELIGIOUS     THOUGHT. 


The  Contemporary  Evolution 


OF 


Religious  Thought 


IN 


ENGLAND,   AMERICA   and    INDIA, 

BY 

COUNT  GOBLET  d'ALVIELLA, 

PROFESSOR  OF  COMPARATIVE  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  BRUSSELS  AND 
FORMERLY   MEMBER   OF  THE   BELGIAN   HOUSE  OF   REPRESENTATIVES. 


"  Notre  siecle  a  vu  des  mouvements  religieux  aussi  extraordinaires  que  ceux  d'autrefois, 
mouvements  qui  ont  provoque,  au  debut  autant  d'enthusiasme,  qui  ont  deja  eu,  proportion 
gardee,  plus  de  martyrs  et  dont  l'avenir  est  encore  incertain," — E.  Rbnan,  Les  ApCtres. 


TRANSLATED 


J .     MODEN 


NEAV  YORK  : 

G.    P.    PUTNAM'S   SONS, 

27  k  29,  West  Twenty-third  Street, 

1S86. 


TO 

EMILE    de    LAVELEYE, 

who  even   in  the  heat  of  the  struggle  for  the  progress 

of  the   human  mind   has  never  separated 

Religion   and  Liberty. 


\^>     * 

NOV  18  1885 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


When  this  work  first  came  under  my  notice,  I  was 
struck  with  its  calm  judicial  tone,  its  fine  catholicity  of 
spirit,  and  above  all  with  its  comprehensive  grasp  of 
the  bearing  of  modern  science  upon  ultimate  religious 
beliefs.  To  trace  the  changes  of  religious  thought  and 
note  their  inter-dependence,  their  "evolution,"  in  the 
life  of  two  great  races,  during  the  most  eventful  period 
in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  is  certainly  no  small 
undertaking,  and  yet  it  was  one  which,  as  it  seemed  to 
me,  the  Author  had  successfully  accomplished.  And 
although  I  was  fully  aware  that  a  large  proportion, 
possibly,  indeed,  the  majority  of  those  likely  to  be 
interested  in  a  question  of  this  kind,  were,  in  all 
probability,  able  to  read  the  work  in  the  original,  it 
still  appeared  to  me  and  to  friends  on  whose  judg- 
ment I  relied,  that  so  important  a  book  ought  to  be 
translated  for  the  sake  of  those  less  versed  in  the 
French  language  and  yet  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
subject.  The  present  translation  is  the  result,  which 
I  now  offer  to  the  English-speaking  public  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic. 


viii.  translator's  preface. 

In  the  performance  of  my  self-imposed  task,  I  have 
sought  to  reproduce  not  only  the  thought,  but,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  spirit  of  the  work.  It  is  for  others  to  say 
how  far  I  have  succeeded  in  this  attempt.  The  one 
great  pre-requisite  for  the  task  I  have  certainly  possessed 
— sympathy  with  the  subject.  This  sympathy  has  ex- 
tended to  the  historical  and  critical  as  well  as  to  the 
more  philosophical  parts  of  the  book  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  I  must  confess  to  having  felt  a  special  interest  in 
the  chapters  which  treat  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's 
philosophy  and  of  the  attempt  that  is  being  made  by 
Mr.  Savage  and  others  to  reconcile  religious  faith  with 
the  Philosophy  of  Evolution,  and  to  thus  base  the  life 
of  the  soul  upon  the  consciousness  of  the  Absolute, 
that  indestructible  rock  which  the  wildest  storms  of 
scepticism  can  never  wear  away. 

As  the  reader  will  observe,  I  have  added  several 
notes,  which  in  one  or  two  cases  are  of  considerable 
length.  It  has  appeared  to  me  desirable  to  make  at 
least  some  mention  of  whatever  within  my  own  know- 
ledge was  calculated  to  throw  any  direct  light  upon  the 
text  of  the  work,  or  to  bring  its  critical  examination 
down  to  a  later  date.  Hence  the  notes  in  reference  to 
certain  new  books  ;  to  the  Spencer-Harrison  contro- 
versy ;  to  the  most  recent  phases  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj 
movement ;  and  to  other  matters  likely  to  prove  of  in- 
terest to  the  reader  or  give  greater  value  to  the  book. 
My  having  made  no  reference  to  Dr.  Martineau's  re- 
cently published  work — "Types  of  Ethical  Theory" — 
may  seem  either  an  exception  or  an  omission  on  this 
head.     But  the  book  in  question  appeared  too  late  for 


TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE.  IX. 


mention  in  those  chapters  where  the  high  position  and 
extensive  influence  of  its  author  are  considered  ;  and 
then  again,  though  a  great  and  most  important  work, 
it  has  but  an  indirect  bearing  upon  the  evolution  of 
religious  thought  and  does  not  come,  therefore,  within 
the  strictly  legitimate  scope  of  this  book. 

Those  who  read  with  interest  what  is  said  in  these 
pages  on  the  progressive  modification  and  development 
of  religious  thought  in  England,  America,  and  India, 
may  possibly  regret  that  the  Author  did  not  at  least 
extend  the  scope  of  the  work  to  Germany.  This  regret, 
indeed,  was  expressed  to  me,  the  other  day,  by  Professor 
Prleiderer,  of  Berlin,  who  spoke  most  highly  of  what 
Count  d'Alviella  has  actually  accomplished.  It  may  be 
remarked,  however,  that  the  book  would  not  have 
possessed,  in  such  case,  the  unity  which  now  charac- 
terises it,  and  that  the  field  is  still  open  for  the  applica- 
tion of  a  similar  method  of  critical  observation  to  the 
various  Protestant  countries  of  the  Continent — Ger- 
many, Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Sweden. 

To  the  merely  superficial  observer  of  the  present 
condition  of  religious  thought  there  often  comes  a  feel- 
ing of  dread  or  of  exultation,  according  as  he  is  at  the 
positive  or  negative  stage  of  belief  and  clings  to  religion 
or  would  see  it  destroyed.  But  he  who  looks  around 
upon  the  religious  opinions  of  his  fellows  in  the  spirit 
of  this  book  or  ponders  over  the  changes  of  belief  it 
describes,  will  find  no  cause  for  either  despondency  or 
sceptical  triumph.  He  will  see  that  though  the  form  of 
religion  changes  the  substance  remains  ;  and  he  will  be 
led  to  believe,  or  strengthened  in  the  conviction,  that 


x.  translator's  preface. 

religion  can  no  more  die  out  of  the  heart  of  man,  in  his 
race  capacity,  than  gravitation  can  disappear  from  the 
physical  world.  As  the  soul's  perception  of  the  under- 
lying Reality,  as  its  consciousness  of  relationship  and 
affinity  to  the  mysterious  Power  in  whose  Immensity 
the  Space-universe  is  embosomed  like  a  mote  in  the 
sunbeam,  it  is  not  only  an  abiding  but  the  grandest, 
because  the  ideal  and  governing  factor  in  man's  spiritual 
being.  Chained  to  the  phenomenal  by  his  intellect,  it 
is  in  and  through  religion  alone  that  he  is  brought  into 
practical  relationship  with  the  Absolute.  It  is  true  he 
becomes  conscious  of  Transcendent  Existence  by  the 
processes  of  the  intellect,  but  it  is  only  in  love  and 
aspiration — only  in  the  consciousness  of  that  "  Eternal 
Mystery"  to  which  Herbert  Spencer  ascribes  religion 
or  from  the  sense  of  absolute  dependence  to  which 
Schliermacher  traced  it,  or,  indeed,  from  the  perception 
of  God  in  the  moral  law  as  taught  by  Kant,  that  the 
human  blends  with  the  Divine,  and  the  soul  of  man 
passes  into  the  infinite  and  partakes  of  its  rest  and 
fulness.  To  every  open  mind  the  universe  with  its 
wondrous  commingling  of  atoms  and  mysterious  on- 
flowing  instants,  is  a  revelation  of  the  Eternal  in  Space 
and  Time.  And  with  the  thought  that  thus  perceives 
the  Supreme  Being,  behind  the  world,  there  comes  the 
feeling,  the  "emotional  consciousness"  which  is  a  per- 
sonal realization  of  Him.  For  reverence  is  born  of 
what  the  mind  recognises  as  great,  vast,  sublime.  And 
in  this  way  the  soul  passes  from  the  visible  to  the 
invisible,  from  the  phenomenal  to  the  real. — But  not 
simply  as  the  correlative  of  great  thoughts  is  the  Divine 
life  given,  for  it  flows  into  every  young  soul  and  en- 


TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE.  XI. 


shrines  itself  in  opinions  that  seem  absolutely  true  when 
erroneous,  and  inspires  a  confidence  that  claims  fullest 
knowledge  where  knowledge  is  impossible.  Innumer- 
able souls  thus  live  before  God — souls  that  could  never 
reach  Him  if  clear  intellectual  vision  were  needed  to  do 
so.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  marvellous  than  this 
second  or  higher  form  of  instinct  which  makes  even 
intellectual  error  subservient  to  the  continuance  of 
spiritual  truth  in  the  human  heart.  Thus  the  imperish- 
able treasure  of  the  soul's  life  is  always  contained  in  an 
earthen  vessel  supplied  by  the  intellect.  Moulded, 
fashioned  and  conditioned  according  to  the  needs  of 
the  mind  in  all  its  multiform  stages  of  progress,  that  is 
to  say  enshrined  in  a  thousand  mythological  or  theo- 
logical forms,  this  sense  of  God  the  Infinite  manifests 
itself  as  faith,  as  religion  ;  and  men  cling  to  it  in  certain 
phases  of  their  growth  as  a  mother  clings  to  her  child, 
and  at  other  times  they  spurn  it  as  a  worthless  thing 
because  an  awakening  mind  has  shown  them  it  is  not 
identical  with  some  special  form  of  belief,  as  they  have 
earnestly  or  even  passionately  taken  it  to  be. 

Now  the  preception  of  this  truth  is  the  key  that  un- 
locks every  system  of  faith  and  discloses  the  spiritual 
power  which  may  be  associated  with  the  crudest 
opinions,  showing  us  that  though  absolute  truth  is  not 
the  heritage  of  man  the  harmony  of  sincerity  is  made 
absolute  and  suffices  for  the  life  of  the  soul.  Hence  it 
enables  us  to  understand  the  origin  and  influence  of  the 
great  religions  of  the  past  as  they  are  revealed  to  us  by 
Comparative  Theology,  and  it  will  enable  the  reader  to 
rightly  estimate  the  changes  of  religious  thought  which 


xii.  TRANSLATOR  S   PREFACE. 

are  taking  place  to-day  in  our  midst — changes  which 
this  work  describes  and  attempts  to  account  for  by 
carrying  the  great  law  of  Evolution  into  that  domain 
of  human  experience  which  was  so  long  regarded  as  a 
separate  province  of  the  mind,  but  is  now  seen  to  be 
nothing  more  than  its  bright  upper  and  heavenward 
side. 

Leicester,  July,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
INTRODUCTION        ...  I 


PART    I. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   PROGRESS   OF   FREE  INQUIRY    IN   ENGLAND    SINCE  THE   RE- 
FORMATION           13 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EVOLUTION    AND    THE    CRISIS    OF    THEISM         35 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   PROGRESS   OF   THOUGHT    IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANISM     ...  57 

CHAPTER   IV. 

ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM ...         8 1 

CHAPTER   V. 

RATIONALISTIC    CONGREGATIONS    BEYOND    THE   PALE    OF    CHRIS- 
TIANITY         IO3 


XIV.  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 
COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM  ...  ...  I2Q 


PART    II. 


CHAPTER   VII.  . 

THE   GENESIS    OF    UNITARIANISM    IN    THE   UNITED    STATES  ...       153 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT — EMERSON    AND    PARKER  ...       167 

CHAPTER   IX. 

FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION    OF    ETHICS  183 

CHAPTER  X. 

COSMISM    AND    THE    RELIGION    OF    EVOLUTION     ...  ...  ...       20Q 


PART    III. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THEISM    IN    CONTEMPORARY    INDIA  ...  ...  ...  ...       225 

CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE    BRAHMO    SOMAJ  24 1 


CONTENTS.  XV. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

PAGE 
THE   ECLECTICISM   OF   THE   BRAHMA    DHARMA    IN    ITS    STRUGGLE 

WITH    HINDU    MYSTICISM              ...             ...             ...  257 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION              ...             ...             ...  273 

CHAPTER   XV. 

BRAHMOISM   AND   THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF    INDIA     ...             ...  29 1 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Unattached  to  any  Church,  but  in  moral  and  intel- 
lectual sympathy  with  all  who,  either  as  representatives 
of  a  religious  organization  or  otherwise,  are  seeking  to 
reconcile  religion  and  reason,  I  have  been  engaged,  for 
several  years  past,  in  studying  the  various  attempts 
which  are  being  made  by  the  English,  the  Americans, 
and  the  Hindus,  to  solve  what  Professor  Tyndall  calls 
"The  problem  of  problems  of  our  age."  It  is  the 
result  of  these  studies  that  I  now  offer  to  the  public. 

I  could  have  wished  to  extend  my  work  to  all  those 
countries  where  an  attempt  is  also  being  made  to  ensure 
a  rational  satisfaction  to  the  religious  sentiment ;  but, 
taking  into  consideration  the  magnitude  of  such  an 
attempt,  I  have  thought  it  wise  to  restrict  myself 
to  those  peoples  whom  special  circumstances  have 
permitted  me  to  more  closely  observe.  There  is, 
moreover,  an  exceptional  interest  in  studying  the  con- 
flict between  religion  and  science  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  nations,  who,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  are 
regarded  as  forming  at  once  the  most  religious  and  the 
most  practical  race  of  the  modern  world. 

Those  who  read  this  work  to  the  end  will  see  how  it 
is  that,  without  destroying  the  unity  of  the  subject,  I 
have  been  able  to  connect,  with  a  sketch  of  religious 
progress  in  England  and  the  United  States,  an  expo- 


INTRODUCTION. 


sition  of  the  religious  reform  now  being  carried  on  in 
India  by  the  different  schools  of  Brahmoism.  There 
is,  in  short,  a  movement  of  emancipation  going  on 
among  the  Hindus,  which,  while  retaining  its  origin- 
ality in  the  presence  of  European  influences,  represents 
none  the  less  the  indirect  action  of  Anglo-Saxon  culture 
on  the  spirit  of  the  old  Hindu  philosophy. 

It  is  in  no  sectarian  or  proselytizing  spirit  that  this 
work  is  written.  I  have  been  influenced  neither  by  a 
desire  to  secure  acceptance  for  any  one  of  the  systems 
of  belief  which  I  have  sought  to  explain,  nor  by  an 
assumption  that  I  am  capable  of  offering  any  new 
solution  of  the  problem.  My  sole  aim  has  been  to 
furnish  some  few  materials  for  the  history  of  Rationalism 
in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  have, 
therefore,  specially  applied  myself  to  collecting  facts 
and  to  summarizing  documents,  adding,  at  the  same 
time,  my  own  views  on  the  ground  of  general  criticism. 

I  may  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  I  should  be 
greatly  embarrassed  if,  at  the  outset,  it  were  necessary 
for  me  to  decide  between  the  relative  claims  of  the 
religious  doctrines  which  are  described  in  this  volume. 
Whenever  I  have  watched  the  working  of  the  different 
systems  on  the  spot,  whenever  I  have  found  myself  in 
personal  relation  with  their  principal  representatives,  or 
have  been  able  to  study  them  in  the  works  of  their 
most  authoritative  interpreters,  I  have  been  struck 
much  more  forcibly  by  the  unity  of  principle  pervad- 
ing them  than  by  the  diversity  of  form  they  possess. 

Why  not  avow  it,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  taxed 
with  indifference  or  ever-changing  opinions   by   those 


INTRODUCTION. 


who  do  not  understand  me  ?  I  was  little  short  of  feeling 
myself  a  Unitarian  when  with  Dr.  Martineau  in  England, 
or  with  Mr.  Savage  in  the  United  States  ;  a  Theist  with 
Mr.  Voysey ;  a  Transcendentalist,  at  Boston  with 
Theodore  Parker;  a  believer  in  the  Divinity  of  the 
Cosmos,  at  New  Bedford  with  Mr.  Potter  ;  a  Humani- 
tarian, at  New  York  with  Mr.  Adler ;  and  even  a 
Brahmoist,  at  Calcutta  with  the  leaders  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj.  To  say  the  least,  if  I  had  been  born  in  any  one 
of  these  systems  of  belief,  in  all  probability,  I  should 
have  remained  in  it,  because  it  would  have  presented 
no  barrier  to  my  moral  and  intellectual  development. 

I  may  say,  therefore,  with  Montaigne  :  "C'est  icy  un 
livre  de  bonne  foy,  lecteur."  But  I  should  also  add  that 
it  is  not  only  a  book  written  in  good  faith,  but  also  one 
that  has  resulted  from  sympathy  with  the  subject. 
When  a  man  is  closely  connected  with  the  struggles  of 
political  factions  in  his  own  country,  he  feels  a  certain 
pleasure  in  transporting  himself  into  a  calmer  and 
healthier  atmosphere,  where  he  may  express  himself 
free  from  the  reservations  or  the  party  spirit  of  electoral 
and  parliamentary  controversy.  All  the  writers  who 
have  considered  the  progress  of  the  conflict  between 
the  modern  spirit  and  Roman  orthodoxy,  from  the 
higher  levels  of  thought — as  Renan,  Renouvier,  de 
Laveleye,  Castelar,  and  Mariano — have  pointed  out  the 
disadvantages,  and  even  the  dangers  which  accompany 
any  form  of  destruction  in  religious  matters,  without  a 
corresponding  process  of  reconstruction.  This  consider- 
ation, grave  as  it  is,  would  not  influence  me,  if  it  were 
a  question  of  defending  the  essential  conditions  of  our 


INTRODUCTION. 


civilization,  the  independence  of  individual  judgment, 
the  claims  of  science  or  the  exercise  of  public  liberty, 
against  the  assumptions  of  any  church.  But  however 
resolved  I  may  be  to  persevere  in  such  a  course  as  this, 
I  cannot,  in  the  presence  of  the  disappointments  and 
embarrassments  which  it  reserves  for  us,  restrain  a  feel- 
ing of  envy  for  the  wisdom  of  those  more  fortunate 
peoples  with  whom  attempts  at  religious  reconstruction 
go  hand  in  hand  with  the  progress  of  dogmatic  demoli- 
tion. Hence,  though  I  have  attempted  to  give  to  this 
work  an  impartial  and  impersonal  character,  it  bears  the 
impress  of  a  large  and  perhaps  the  best  part  of  my  own 
individuality. 

Some  time  since,  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  describing  the 
various  currents  of  religious  thought  which  prevail  in 
the  modern  world,  divided  them  into  two  classes,  accord- 
ing as  their  adherents  admit  or  deny  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  Providence  and  the  sanctions  of  a  future  life.1  In 
the  first  of  these  groups  he  placed  the  partizans  of  Papal 
infallibility,  together  with  those  who  attribute  to  their 
Church  a  divine  origin  (Episcopalians,  Old  Catholics 
and  members  of  the  Greek  Church)  as  well  as  the  various 
Evangelical  sects,  the  Universalists,  the  Unitarians,  and 
also  the  majority  of  Theists.  In  the  second  division — 
characterized  as  the  negative  school — he  classed  Sceptics, 
Atheists,  Agnostics,  Secularists,  Pantheists,  Positivists, 
and  the  believers  in  a  revived  Paganism. 

o 

Now  this  classification  is  perfectly  justifiable  for  those 
who  occupy,   as   Mr.   Gladstone  does,  a  definite  philo- 

I.  The  Courses  of  Religious  Thought,  by  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  in 
the  Contemporary  Review,  of  June,  1S76. 


INTRODUCTION. 


sophical  stand-point.  But  on  the  more  general  ground 
where  I  have  taken  up  a  position,  it  is  not  so  much  the 
nature  of  the  religious  ideas,  which  has  to  be  considered, 
as  their  flexibility,  that  is  to  say  the  extent  to  which 
those  who  accept  them  admit  the  right  of  free  inquiry 
in  relation  to  their  adoption  or  rejection.  I  came  to  the 
conclusion,  therefore,  that  the  best  course  I  could  persue, 
would  be  to  describe  in  succession  the  condition  of  the 
various  churches  and  schools  of  religious  thought  by 
arranging  them,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  order  of  de- 
creasing dogmatic  opinion.  On  the  other  hand,  since 
my  purpose  is  less  that  of  describing  any  given  religious 
organization  than  of  tracing  the  course  of  its  evolution, 
I  have  also  deemed  it  useless  to  dwell  upon  such  facts  as 
the  eccentricities  of  certain  American  sects,  the  practices 
of  the  Salvation  Army  and  the  like,  which  have  often 
occupied  public  attention,  but  which,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
mark  either  a  retrograde  tendency  or  a  deviation  from 
the  general  course  of  religious  development. 

I  have  thought  it  desirable  to  commence  the  first  part 
of  the  work  with  a  sketch  of  the  progress  which  free 
inquiry  has  made  in  England  since  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Eighth  ;  in  seeing  by  this  means  how  the  present 
has  sprung  from  the  past,  the  reader  will  be  the  better 
able  to  anticipate  how  the  future  will  flow  out  of  the 
present. 

Nor  has  it  seemed  to  me  less  indispensable  to  devote 
a  special  chapter  to  a  description  of  the  influence  exer- 
cised upon  the  religious  sentiment  by  the  scientific 
philosophy  of  the  age,  which  is  everywhere  tending  to 
predominate   in  the   higher  strata  of  modern  thought. 


INTRODUCTION. 


It  will  be  thus  seen  that  the  present  conflict  between 
religion  and  reason,  is  not  confined  to  the  peoples  of  our 
continent ;  while  at  the  same  time  it  will  become 
apparent  how  the  leading  minds  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  have  set  about  solving  this  great  problem,  without 
sacrificing  the  respective  claims  of  either  of  the  two 
parties  in  the  conflict. 

The  chapters  which  follow  contain  an  exposition  of 
the  progress  of  religious  thought  in  the  various  denom- 
inations of  Great  Britain,  from  the  Anglican  Church  to 
orthodox  Positivism  and  indeed  to  the  rudimentary  wor- 
ship of  the  Secularists,  passing  in  review  the  evangelical 
sects,  the  Unitarians,  the  pure  Theists  and  other  ration- 
alistic communions. 

The  second  part  of  the  work  is  principally  devoted 
to  the  United  States.  I  explain  in  it  how  the  Unitarian 
movement  sprang  up  there  from  the  original  Puritan 
orthodoxy  by  a  gradual  but  by  no  means  illogical  evolu- 
tion, and  how,  after  having  passed  through  the  phase  of 
Transcendentalism,  it  has  produced  numerous  organiza- 
tions which  border  on  the  limits  of  pure  Theism  or 
even  extend  to  Agnosticism,  some  indeed  realizing, 
to  a  certain  extent,  the  type  of  a  Church  of  Humanity 
without  any  dogmatic  barriers  whatever,  and  others 
attaching  themselves  more  or  less  closely  to  the  recent 
philosophy  of  evolution. 

The  object  of  the  third  part  is  to  show  how  contact 
with  European  culture  has  produced  in  India  a  break- 
ing up  of  the  old  systems  of  Polytheism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  an  eclectic  Theism,  due  to  a 
synthesis  of  the  religious  progress   made  by  the  two 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

races.  But  I  also  endeavour,  at  the  same  time,  to  show- 
how  the  mysticism,  always  latent  in  the  Hindu  char- 
acter, threatens  to  paralyse  all  attempts  to  start  the 
mind  of  that  people  along  the  less  demonstrative  course 
of  European  religious  life.  I  have  further  taken  into 
consideration  what  are  likely  to  be  the  general  results, 
in  the  future,  of  this  action  and  re-action  between  the 
two  principal  branches  of  the  great  Aryan  family. 

Finally,  a  concluding  chapter  contains  a  statement  of 
what  modern  criticism  has  left  of  the  old  beliefs,  and 
seeks  to  foreshadow  the  kind  of  religious  re-construction 
for  which  this  residuum  of  belief  may  yet  serve  in  the 
future.1 

If  in  our  day  the  religious  sentiment  is  often  regarded 
as  incapable  of  a  new  season  of  bloom,  and  even  des- 
tined to  a  more  or  less  early  disappearance,  it  is  because 
the  present  conflict  between  faith  and  free  inquiry  is 
held  to  be  fundamental  and  definitive.  Religion,  it  is 
urged,  pre-supposes  the  supernatural,  which  reason  ex- 
cludes. It  is  necessary,  however,  to  come  to  a  clear 
understanding  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  terms  employed 
in  such  a  statement  as  this.  If  by  the  supernatural  the 
anti-natural  is  meant,  that  is  to  say  a  violation  of  the 
order  revealed  in  nature,  in  a  word  the  miraculous,  then 
I  readily  admit  that  it  must  be  henceforth  abandoned 
as  utterly  irreconcileable  with  the  requirements  of  every 

I.  Several  chapters  of  this  book  have  appeared,  at  various  intervals,  in  the  form 
of  articles  published  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.  But  it  will  be  readily  under- 
stood that  I  have  not  been  able  to  unite  them  in  a  continuous  narrative,  like  this 
work,  without  considerable  modifications,  in  order  to  embody  such  information  as 
may  have  been  necessary,  respecting  the  changes  which  are  always  taking  place  in 
the  factors  of  religious  evolution.  The  chapters  which  relate  to  England  and  India 
have  been,  as  it  were,  completely  re-written. 


INTRODUCTION. 


system  of  philosophical  thought.  But  if  the  term  super- 
natural simply  stands  for  the  super-sensible,  or  what  is 
above  nature,  or,  indeed,  to  speak  more  correctly,  what 
is  above  reason,  then  there  is  nothing  in  science  which 
can  proscribe  it.  M.  Littre  himself,  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Positive  Philosophy,  declares  that  it  is 
perfectly  legitimate  for  anyone  to  transport  himself  into 
the  "transrational,"  if  he  is  so  disposed,  in  order  to  form 
there  such  ideas  respecting  the  origin  and  purpose  of 
things  as  may  please  him  best ;  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  conception  of  an 
Omnipresent  Power  transcending  the  limits  of  know- 
ledge is  the  supreme  outcome  both  of  science  and 
religion.1 

In  order  to  see  that  reason  and  religion  are  not 
necessarily  in  antagonism,  it  will  suffice  to  remember 
that  they  belong  to  two  different  provinces  of  the  human 
mind.  Philosophy,  making  use  of  the  materials  fur- 
nished by  observation,  formulates  a  conception  of  the 
universe.  This  conception  the  religious  sentiment  takes 
possession  of,  in  order  to  dramatize,  color  and  idealize  it; 
and,  while  seeking  in  it  the  symbol  of  the  Unknowable, 
which  remains  as  the  residiuum  of  all  synthetic  philo- 
sophy, we  also  project  into  it  a  human  element,  which 
sends  back  to  us  an  echo  of  our  aspirations  towards  the 
Infinite  and  the  Absolute.  Doubtless,  a  conflict  can- 
not fail  to  arise  between  free  inquiry  and  what  appears 
to  be  the  religious  sentiment  as  soon  as  any  such 
dramatized  conception  of  the  Cosmos  ceases  to  corres- 
pond with  the  requirements  of  science,  which  may  have 

I.  Littre,  Transrationalism  in  the  Revue  Positive  of  January,  1880.  Herbert 
Spencer,  First  Principles,  Chapter  v. 


INTRODUCTION. 


gradually  become  hostile  to  it.  Still,  in  reality,  the 
hostility,  under  these  circumstances,  is  simply  between 
two  scientific  conceptions,  the  more  ancient  of  which, 
having  become  antiquated  by  the  progress  of  know- 
ledge, has  not  been  rejected  by  religion.  Now,  this 
elimination  is  only  a  question  of  time.  Experience 
teaches  us  that,  after  a  greater  or  less  period  of  oscilla- 
tion and  groping  about  for  a  new  support,  the  religious 
sentiment  always  succeeds  in  freeing  itself  from  its 
antiquated  forms,  and  adopts  an  explanation  of  the 
universe  more  in  conformity  with  the  revelations  of 
science  and  the  aspirations  of  contemporary  society. 

It  is  certainly  quite  possible  that  the  dogmatic  ele- 
ment in  religion  may  have  to  play  a  more  and  more 
restricted  part  in  the  future.  A  strong  tendency  is  daily 
gaining  ground,  especially  in  the  Protestant  churches, 
to  no  longer  look  for  the  test  of  religion  in  this  or  that 
confession  of  faith,  but  in  obedience  to  what  the  cele- 
brated English  critic,  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  has  spoken 
of  as  "A  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness." When  God  is  thus  reduced  to  an  ideal,  of  which 
the  moral  and  physical  order  constitutes  the  permanent 
manifestation,  the  first  duty  that  presents  itself  to  us  is 
to  search  for  the  laws  by  which  the  Divinity  reveals 
His  action — a  course  dictated  by  the  very  attributes  of 
reason  ;  and  the  second  is  to  adapt  our  conduct  to  those 
laws — and  it  is  just  here  that  religion  most  unquestion- 
ably retains  a  great  mission  in  the  development  of 
humanity. 

It  will  perhaps  be  objected  that  this  is  to  confound 
religion  with  morality  ?     Morality,  I  answer,  addresses 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

itself  to  the  judgment  only  ;  it  is  therefore  inadequately 
armed,  as  Auguste  Comte  so  clearly  understood,  to 
struggle  against  passion  and  selfishness  in  the  domain 
of  sentiment  and  imagination.  Ethics,  philosophy, 
sociology,  or  whatever  else  we  please  to  call  the  appli- 
cation of  reason  to  the  discovery  of  the  laws  of  our  indi- 
vidual destiny,  and  the  conditions  of  our  collective 
existence,  may  reveal  to  us  the  practical  requirements 
of  duty ;  but  this  sense  of  duty  needs  to  be  animated 
with  life  by  religion,  that  is  to  say  realized  in  all  its 
fulness. 

Von  Hartman  has  said  that  religion  is  the  popular 
conception  of  the  ideal.  He  should  have  called  it, 
however,  its  living  conception,  for  regarded  from 
this  point  of  view,  there  is  no  one  who  does  not  need 
religion,  and  thus  understood,  the  religious  sentiment 
is  not  only  rational,  it  is  also  as  indestructible  as  reason 
itself. 

I  may  add  that  the  chief  thing  for  general  peace  of 
mind  and  the  progress  of  ideas,  is  less  that  of  attracting 
the  Churches  to  Rationalism,  than  to  the  adoption  of 
liberal  principles  ;  less  that  of  getting  them  to  accept 
views  in  harmony  with  modern  science,  than  of  inducing 
them  to  recognize  the  absolute  right  of  the  individual  to 
think  for  himself,  and  thus  winning  them  over  to  a 
belief  in  the  constant  possibility  of  religious  progress. 

It  is  undeniable  that  we  are  now  passing  through  an 
acute  crisis  of  religious  belief.  If  we  do  not  wish  to 
render  it  more  intense  and  prolong  its  duration,  it  is 
imperative  upon  us  to  strip  ourselves  of  every  prejudice 
and  put  aside  all  intolerance,  as  well  with   regard   to 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

existing  beliefs  as  in  respect  to  those  opinions  offered 
in  place  of  them.  This  attitude  of  mind,  indeed,  is  not 
only  commanded  by  the  necessities  of  the  present 
transition,  it  recommends  itself  to  us,  moreover,  as  the 
result  of  the  entire  movement  of  contemporary  thought. 
Each  day  the  conviction  is  growing  stronger — on  the 
one  hand  that  the  human  mind  cannot  reach  the  supreme 
reality  except  by  means  of  imperfect  symbolism — on 
the  other,  that  all  the  forms  of  religious  thought  are 
the  product  of  natural  causes  embodying,  side  by  side 
with  unavoidable  errors,  an  element  of  truth,  and  that 
they  are  subject  to  the  law  of  progress. 

It  is  this  that  the  Platonic  philosopher  Maximus  of 
Tyre  caught  a  glimpse  of,  as  early  as  the  Second  century 
of  our  era,  when  he  characterized  all  the  forms  of  faith 
as  powerless  efforts  directed  towards  the  same  lofty  ideal. 
It  is  this  that  has  been  placed  in  the  clearest  light  by 
one  of  the  most  recent  and  at  the  same  time  most  ad- 
vanced sciences  of  the  age — Comparative  Theology. 

If  the  present  work  should  have  no  other  result  than 
the  confirmation  of  this  double  position,  which  is  in- 
separable from  all  impartial,  sympathetic  and  fruitful 
criticism,  I  shall  not  consider  that  I  have  written  in 
vain. 


PART    I. 


CHAPTER     I. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY  IN  ENGLAND 
SINCE  THE  REFORMATION, 


Sunday  in  England — A  picture  of  religious  life  in  London — Number  and  variety  of 
sects — Odd  practices — Open-air  preaching — The  teaching  thus  communicated — 

The  political  character  of  the  reform  effected  by  Henry  VIII. — The  elements 

which  favoured  its  extension  among  the  masses — The  influence  of  foreign  refugees  : 
Ochino,  Acontius  and  Corrano — Persecution  of  the  Dissenters  under  the  Tudors 
and  Stuarts— The  Latitudinarians  :  Chillingworth  and  Jeremy  Taylor— Relation 
between  the  increase  of  sects  and  the  progress  of  toleration — The  Puritan  move- 
ment in  the  seventeenth  century — Development  of  Latitudinarian  ideas  under  the 
Restoration — Secularization  of  philosophy  and  science — Locke  and  the  sensational 
school — Attempts  to  base  the  validity  of  Revelation  on  the  authenticity  of  miracles 
— English  Deism  :  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  and  his  successors — The  decline  of 
this  school — The  general  predominance  of  Utilitarianism  in  the  theology  of  the 
eighteenth  century — The  mystical  reaction  of  the  Wesleyans — Coleridge  and 
German  idealism — The  application  of  symbolism  to  the  interpretation  of  Christian 
dogmas — The  convergence  of  scientific  and  historical  researches  towards  the 
negation  of  the  supernatural — Progress  of  Rationalism  among  the  sects  open  to 
theological  change — Contemporary  Theism — Professor  F.  W.  Newman  and  Miss 
F.  P.  Cobbe— Growth  of  religious  liberty  in  British  legislation— The  slow  but 
steady  progress  of  reform — The  parliamentary  oath  and  the  blasphemy  laws. 


The  majority  of  foreigners  who  visit  England  seem  to  regard  Sunday 
as  a  day  on  which  all  the  wheels  of  social  existence  are  stopped.  It 
would  be  more  correct  to  say,  that,  with  the  English,  secular  life  gives 
place  everywhere  to  religious  life  on  one  day  of  the  week.  And  how- 
ever little  we  attempt  to  examine  this  new  phase  of  activity,  we  shall 
find  in  it,  especially  in  the  large  towns,  an  inexhaustible  source  of 
original  impressions  and  fruitful  observations.  It  is,  indeed,  a  necessary 
study  for  anyone  who  would  get  at  the  root  of  the  English  character, 
and  judge  of  the  British  nation  under  all  its  aspects. 

The  variety  and  exuberance  of  religious  phenomena  presented  by 
London  to-day  are  such  as  have  not  been  witnessed  since  the  time 
when  sophists  and  theologians  encumbered  the  streets  of  Alexandria. 


14  THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE   INQUIRY. 

The  London  Post  Office  Directory  of  1882  gives  a  list  of  1,231  places 
of  worship  belonging  to  about  thirty  distinct  sects;1  but  as  this  list 
refers  merely  to  congregations  domiciled  in  their  own  buildings,  it 
must  be  supplemented  by  all  the  religious  organizations  which  hold 
their  meetings  in  private  rooms,  as  well  as  by  the  services  which  are 
held  in  the  open  air,  in  such  places  as  the  parks,  the  public  squares, 
and  even  under  the  arches  of  the  railway  viaducts.2 

It  will  be  seen  that  people  of  all  tastes  and  temperaments  can  find 
abundant  satisfaction  for  their  religious  wants.  If  they  are  fond  of 
imposing  ceremonies  and  a  gorgeous  ritual,  combining  all  the  resources 
of  aesthetics,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Greek  Church,  the 
Ritualistic  and  Irvingite  Churches  vie  with  each  other  in  attracting 
them  by  their  pomp  and  symbolism.  If  they  desire  to  connect  their 
religious  aspirations  with  a  respect  for  free  inquiry,  they  have  only  to 
make  a  choice  from  a  whole  series  of  congregations,  whose  beliefs 
extend  from  Christian  Rationalism  to  religious  services  without  a 
God.  If  they  wish  to  see  curious  phenomena  or  extraordinary  spec- 
tacles, they  have  but  to  follow  some  crowd  which  is  burying  itself  in 
a  hall  with  bare  walls  and  no  other  fittings  than  a  platform  and  a 
number  of  benches.  It  is,  perhaps,  a  meeting  of  the  Tabernacle 
Ranters  which  they  have  entered,  whose  eccentricity  will  show  itself 
in  innumerable  Hallelujahs  !  as  a  sign  of  their  appreciation  of  the 
prayers  and  discourse  of  their  improvised  preacher ;  or  it  may  be  our 
visitors  have  fallen  in  with  a  gathering  of  those  Shakers  or  Jumpers 
who,  in  the  midst  of  the  English  life  of  this  nineteenth  century,  recall 
the  contortions  of  St.  Medard  and  the  Dancing  Dervishes  of  the  East. 
If  they  care  to  venture,  in  company  with  one  of  the  initiated,  into  a 
sort  of  cavern,  where  there  reigns  a  mysterious  obscurity,  they  will 
perhaps  hear  the  existence  of  God  denied  between  the  singing  of  two 
mystic  hymns,  but  they  will  thus  have  an  opportunity  of  holding 
communion  with  the  spirits  of  Jesus  and  Mahommed,  if  not  of  calling 
forth  the  shades  of  their  grandmothers. 

Here  stands  an  immense  Tabernacle,  which  resembles  a  theatre. 
You  will  find  in  it  from  five  to  six  thousand  persons  fixing  their  looks 

1.  The  Directory  for  1884  shows  an  increase  of  40  in  the  two  years.—  Translator. 

2.  Paris  contains  169  places  of  worship,  taking  into  account  the  congregations 
in  private  buildings  and  the  dissenting  sects :  that  is  to  say,  one  place  of  worship 
for  every  17,000  inhabitants,  whereas  London  possesses  one  for  about  every  2,000. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE    INQUIRY.  15 

in  a  meditative  attitude  upon  a  minister,  who,  assisted  by  two  deacons, 
is  plunging  successively  into  a  deep  tank  of  clear  water  young  men 
clothed  in  a  kind  of  dressing-gown  and  young  girls  in  long  bathing- 
gowns  of  white  flannel.  Elsewhere,  you  may  see  worshippers  of  both 
sexes  begin  the  communion  service  by  exchanging  the  kiss  of  peace. 
Or,  again,  in  another  place,  some  fifty  worthy  people  are  to  be  seen 
sitting  with  a  placid  and  becoming  countenance  and  waiting  patiently 
for  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Your  presence  will  not  in  any 
way  disturb  their  pious  ecstasy ;  a  proper  bearing  is  all  that  is  required 
of  you,  and  then  the  worshippers  will  not  even  appear  to  perceive 
your  intrusion. 

Suddenly  a  flourish  of  loud  trumpet-like  notes  bursts  forth  in  the 
neighbouring  street.  Music,  and  military  music,  on  the  Sunday ! 
It  is  a  detachment  of  the  Salvation  Army  marching  to  its  barracks, 
with  officers  of  the  fair  as  well  as  the  stronger  sex  at  its  head,  singing 
hymns  to  put  the  Devil  to  flight  and  firing  circulars  and  pamphlets  at 
the  miserable  sinners  who  have  been  attracted  by  the  sound  of  the 
band. 

At  length  it  is  evening,  and,  the  services  being  over,  the  public 
thoroughfares  are  thronged  with  worshippers  who  have  poured  forth 
from  innumerable  chapels,  whose  gables  are,  in  many  cases,  in  a  line 
with  the  fronts  of  the  houses.  There  is  nothing,  however,  disorderly 
about  this  large  and  motley  crowd  which  lines  the  principal  streets. 
These  latter  are  dimly  lighted  by  long  rows  of  lamps  that  are  eclipsed 
on  the  week-days  by  the  gas  from  the  shop-windows.  No  vehicle 
disturbs  the  pedestrians.  Here  and  there  some  gin-palace  or  shop 
for  the  sale  of  eatables  throws  a  dazzling  ray  of  light  from  its  half- 
open  door.  By  the  side  of  the  foot-ways  hand-carts  or  barrows  are 
wheeled  along,  and  fruit-sellers  deal  out  their  goods  from  them  by 
the  light  of  a  flickering  candle,  which  throws  over  the  countenance 
of  the  purchaser  a  reflection  not  unlike  that  seen  in  Rembrandt's 
pictures. 

At  each  corner  of  the  street,  groups  may  be  seen  around  some 
open-air  orator.  Here,  a  Methodist  preacher,  with  a  long  beard  and 
extravagant  gestures,  is  trying  to  excite  the  religious  feelings  of  his 
auditors  by  pathetic  appeals,  garnished  with  edifying  anecdotes.  Or, 
here  again,  two  representatives  of  rival  sects  are  confounding  each 


16  THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE    INQUIRY. 

other  in  turn  by  Biblical  arguments,  with  a  degree  of  calmness  and 
moderation  not  always  to  be  witnessed  in  Parliamentary  debates. 
Sometimes  a  whole  group,  at  the  bidding  of  its  improvised  minister, 
will  sing  a  hymn,  whose  modulated  words  drown  the  noise  of  the 
crowd.  Gradually  all  disperse;  the  streets  become  empty,  and 
the  policeman,  the  emblem  of  the  State  which  never  rests,  is  soon 
in  sole  possession  of  the  great  sleeping  town. 

As  to  myself,  it  was  almost  entirely  as  an  idler  in  search  of  novelty 
that,  some  ten  years  ago,  I  undertook  a  series  of  visits  to  various 
London  congregations.  I  certainly  came  into  contact  with  more  than 
one  extravagance  and  more  than  one  absurdity,  in  carrying  out  this 
purpose;  but  the  smile  which  may  have  been  brought  to  my  lips, 
quickly  died  away  from  a  feeling  of  general  respect  for  the  sincerity 
of  conviction  which  everywhere  showed  itself,  and  of  special  sympathy 
for  the  efforts  of  those  who  in  various  ways  were  labouring  to  bring 
the  religious  sentiment  into  harmony  with  the  general  progress  of 
civilization.  At  all  events  it  is  to  this  first  comprehensive  view  of  the 
innumerable  subdivisions  of  English  Protestantism  that  I  am  indebted 
for  some  idea  of  the  importance  of  the  great  religious  reform  inaugur- 
ated by  Luther,  and  as  yet  incomplete. 

The  introduction  of  Protestantism  into  England  was  notoriously  a 
work  of  political  policy  rather  than  of  religious  conviction.  It  is 
true  the  Roman  clergy  had  rendered  themselves  as  odious  to  the 
masses  by  their  abuses  as  they  had  done  to  the  Crown  by  their  pre- 
tensions, while  the  old  leaven  of  the  Lollards,  which  was  fermenting 
still  in  the  heart  of  the  nation,  could  not  fail  to  make  the  people 
favourable  to  a  movement  that  promised  to  realize  all  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  Wycliff—  that  Protestant  of  the  Reformation's  dawn. 
But  whilst  the  popular  element  inclined  towards  extreme  views  of  the 
Reformation,  the  official  element  of  the  nation, — that  is  to  say  the 
King,  the  Court,  the  judicial  functionaries,  and  the  members  of  the 
Universities, — desired  to  retain  a  sort  of  Catholicism  without  the 
Pope,  in  which  the  Sovereign  would  exercise  supreme  authority  over 
the  religious  affairs  of  the  nation.  Thus  the  Thirty-nine  Articles, 
which  have  formed  since  1562  the  constitutional  basis  of  the  English 
Church,  embody  all  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  canon  of  Scripture, 
as  well  as  the  Apostles',  the  Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian  creeds.     The 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   FREE   INQUIRY.  17 

ritual  was  minutely  drawn  up  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which 
substituted  the  national  idiom  for  the  Latin  language ;  and  an  eager- 
ness was  shown  to  maintain  the  whole  of  the  ancient  ecclesiastical 
organization,  with  the  simple  difference,  for  the  most  part,  that  the 
King  took  the  place  of  the  Pope  at  the  head  of  the  hierarchy.1  The 
new  Church  maintained  the  assumption  of  its  predecessor  as  to  Apos- 
tolical succession,  and  there  was  nothing,  not  even  the  title  of 
"Catholic,"  which  it  did  not  lay  claim  to  in  face  of  the  Roman 
Church. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  human  conscience  had  merely  exchanged 
tyrants  by  this  shifting  of  supremacy.     Every  established  form  of 
religion  implies  State  heresies,  which  the  Civil  Power  must  repress  as 
infringements  of  public  order.     The  celebrated  Parliamentary  leader, 
Pym,  who  took  so  active  a  part  in  the  fall  of  Charles  I.,  does  not 
profess  in  this  matter  any  other  ideas  than  those  of  Henry  VIII. 
"  It  belongs  to  Parliaments,"  said  he,  "  to  establish  true  religion  and 
to  punish  false."2    But  if,  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  duty,  the 
State  sometimes'  acts  as  cruelly  as  the  Church  itself,  it  is  never  as 
suspicious  in  its  search  for  heresies  nor  as  rigorous  in  their  repression ; 
it  seldom  seeks  to  penetrate  to  the  tribunal  of  conscience,  but  contents 
itself  generally  with  a  nominal  submission.     The  Reformation,  more- 
over, could  not  escape  in   England,  any  more  than  elsewhere,  the 
application  of  its   central  principle,   which  consisted  of  setting  up 
the  authority  of  the  individual  conscience;  and  from  the  very  fact 
that  it  represented  a  compromise  between  the  extreme  opinions  of 
the  period,  it  had  to  resist  opposite  tendencies,  alike  hostile  to  free 
inquiry,  the  one  arising  from  the  literal  interpretation  of  a  traditional 
text,  the  other   consisting  of  the   assumed   infallibility  of  a  living 
authority.     In  short,  the  Reformation,  having  commenced  among  the 
enlightened  classes   and   being   closely  bound  up  with  the  life  of 
the  governing  aristocracy,   had  to  maintain,  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  respect  for  individual  culture  and  a  certain  repugnance  for  all 
kinds  of  fanaticism. 

I.  Henry  VIII.  once  caused  three  Lutherans  and  four  Catholics  to  be  drawn  to 
the  place  of  execution  on  the  same  hurdle,  because  they  were  all  guilty  of  denying 
his  supremacy.  The  only  difference  was  that  the  former  were  hanged  and  the  latter 
burned. —  Vide,  Neal,  History  of  the  Puritans. 

2.  J.  J.  Tayler.     A  Retrospect  of  the  Religious  Life  of  England.     2nd  Edition. 
London,  1876.     Page  116. 

C 


18  THE   PROGRESS   OF   FREE   INQUIRY. 

During  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  England  offered  an  asylum  to  all 
who  had  been  exiled  from  their  native  land,  on  religious  grounds, 
without  regard  to  sect  or  race.  As  early  as  1549,  indeed,  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  who  had  already  invited  from  the  Continent  a 
certain  number  of  scholars  and  theologians  of  the  reformed  school, 
to  aid  in  the  re-organization  of  the  English  Universities,  constituted 
a  Church  for  foreigners,  which  was  shortly  afterwards  divided  into 
four  branches,  formed  respectively  of  Flemish,  Walloons,  Italians, 
and  Spaniards.  The  liberal  spirit  which  had  already  shown  itself  in 
this  small  community,  especially  among  the  exiles  of  Italian  and 
Spanish  origin, 1  could  not  fail  to  strongly  re-act,  were  it  only  by  the 
works  of  their  theologians,  upon  the  religious  ideas  of  those  with 
whom  they  had  found  safety  and  independence. 

Among  the  first  Italian  Protestants  who  took  refuge  in  England,  in 
or  about  the  year  1547,  was  an  old  Capucine  monk  from  Sienna, 
Bernard  Ochino,  who  had  largely  contributed  to  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation  in  his  own  country.  Greatly  in  favour  at  the  Court 
during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  he  was  obliged  to  flee  into  Switzer- 
land at  the  death  of  that  monarch,  and  shortly  afterwards  being 
proscribed  from  all  Protestant  communities,  in  consequence  of  his 
Socinian  opinions,  he  died,  in  a  state  of  wretchedness,  in  a  small 
village  of  Moravia,  at  the  age  of  76.  But,  though  banished  from 
England,  he  left  behind  him  numerous  sympathisers,  and  more  than 
one  person  in  the  foreign  Churches,  both  able  and  willing  to  carry  on 
his  work — notably  Jacques  Acontius,  a  lay  member  of  the  Italian 

1.  Among  the  Italians  the  Reformation  had  assumed  a  more  intellectual  direction 
than  elsewhere,  and  this  need  not  be  a  matter  of  astonishment  to  those  who  bear  in 
mind  the  social  atmosphere  created  by  the  Renaissance.  The  dogma  of  the  Trinity, 
that  great  mystery  of  orthodox  Christianity,  had  first  of  all  to  bear  the  assault  of 
rational  criticism.  In  1531,  a  Spanish  Doctor,  Michel  Servetus,  who  had  studied 
at  the  University  of  Padua,  and  whose  tragic  end  is  well  known,  wrote  that  the 
nature  of  God  is  indivisable,  and  that  the  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  simply  modes 
of  the  divine  activity.  This  species  of  Pantheism,  which  was  re-stated  by  Sabellius, 
spread  rapidly  through  the  conventicles  held  during  the  next  twenty  years  in  the 
north  of  Italy,  with  the  more  or  less  disguised  toleration  of  the  Venetian  Republic. 
It  is  even  stated  that,  about  1546,  some  forty  persons  belonging  to  the  most  en- 
lightened classes  of  Society,  formed  at  Vicence  an  Association  for  the  restoration 
of  "Christian  Monotheism."  It  seemed  as  if  Italian  Protestantism  was  about  to 
extend  the  Reformation  principles  to  their  utmost  limits  from  the  first,  when  there 
suddenly  burst  forth  that  storm  of  re-action  which  swept  it  clean  away  from  the 
whole  Peninsula. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE   INQUIRY.  19 

Church,  who,  in  drawing  up  a  list  of  the  doctrines  necessary  for 
salvation,  omitted  to  inscribe  therein  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and 
Antoine  Corrano,  the  minister  of  the  Spanish  Church,  who,  suspended 
from  his  functions  on  account  of  his  extra-Trinitarian  beliefs,  was 
none  the  less  made  a  canon  of  St.  Paul's.1 

It  was  doubtless  not  judicious  to  attack  the  official  dogmas  too 
openly — to  pass  on,  for  instance,  from  extra-Trinitarian  to  anti- 
Trinitarian  opposition — since  it  was  possible  that  the  State,  once 
roused,  would  speedily  show  the  difference,  and  that,  too,  with  all 
the  cruelty  of  the  age.  Witness  those  unhappy  Anabaptists  or  Arians, 
who,  from  George  Van  Parris,  in  155 1,  to  Edward  Wightman,  in  161 1, 
perished — as  Servetus  had  done,  and  for  the  same  crime — in  flames 
kindled  by  Protestant  hands.  But  these  intermittent  persecutions 
were  powerless  to  arrest  the  progress  of  ideas,  and  the  ashes  of  the 
last  Socinian  martyrs  were  scarcely  cool  before  Arminian  doctrines — 
those  near  neighbours  of  Arianism — had  already  begun  to  leaven  the 
opinions  of  the  Anglican  clergy. 

The  Dutch  sect  of  Arminians  or  Remonstrants  did  not  confine 
themselves,  as  the  reader  may  be  aware,  to  a  simple  rejection  of  the 
dogma  of  predestination  and  that  of  the  absolute  equality  of  the  three 
Divine  Persons ;  they  also  raised  the  standard  of  religious  toleration 
against  the  narrowness  of  Calvinistic  theologians.  Meanwhile,  their 
broader  views  were  brought  into  England  by  a  former  chaplain  of  the 
English  Embassy  in  Holland,  John  Hales,  who  had  been  present  at 
the  discussion  of  the  Council  of  Dordrecht,  and  who,  forcibly  im- 
pressed by  the  reasoning  of  Episcopius,  had  even  at  that  time,  to 
use  his  own  expression,  "  bid  John  Calvin  good  night,"  Having  con- 
nected himself,  on  his  return  to  England,  with  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  of  the  day,  Lord  Falkland — "  whose  house,"  says 
an  author  of  that  period,  "  looked  like  the  University  itself  by  the 
company  that  was  always  found  there" — he  formed,  with  Chillingworth, 
Jeremy  Taylor,  and  some  other  young  clergymen,  the  nucleus  of  what 
is  still  known  as  the  Latitudinarian  party  in  the  English  Church. 

1.  G.  Bonet-Maury.  Des  Origines  du  Christianisme  Unitaire  chez  les  Anglais . 
I.  Vol.  Paris,  Fishbacher.  1881.  (This  work  has  been  translated  into  English 
by  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Hall,  and  published  by  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian 
Association.  —  Translator.} 


20  THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY. 

The  position  taken  up  by  John  Hales — a  very  bold  one  for  the 
period — was  that  sincere  error  is  not  a  crime,  and  that,  consequently, 
"  differences  of  opinion  "  should  not  be  repressed  by  force.  Even 
more  :  he  laid  down  the  principle  which  was  destined  to  make  liberal 
Protestantism  triumphant.  "  If  we  were  not,"  said  he,  in  one  of  his 
sermons,  "  so  ready  to  launch  anathemas  at  each  other,  we  should  be 
united  in  heart,  though  separated  in  expression  of  opinion,  which  would 
be  to  the  advantage  of  all.  It  is  unity  of  spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace, 
and  not  identity  of  conceptions,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  demands."1 

Chillingworth's  Religion  of  Protestants,  published  in  1637,  and  a 
few  years  later  Jeremy  Taylor's  Liberty  of  Prophesying,  were  perhaps 
even  more  serviceable  to  the  cause  of  toleration  and  religious  progress 
than  the  sermons  of  John  Hales.  Still,  both  these  authors  accepted 
the  absolute  authority  of  the  Bible.  "The  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only, 
is  the  religion  of  Protestants."  Such  is  the  very  sentence  which 
Chillingworth  uses  as  the  foundation  of  his  argument  when  he  attacks 
the  confessions  of  faith  arbitrarily  imposed  either  by  churches  or 
individual  theologians.  But  all  three  insist  on  this  point :  that  the 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  is  to  be  freely  determined  by  individual 
judgment.  Chillingworth's  contention  was  that  those  who  are  mis- 
taken and  those  who  are  not  mistaken  in  matters  of  doctrine,  may  be 
alike  saved.  And  he  was  so  persuaded  of  the  goodness  of  God,  he 
said,  that  if  all  the  errors  charged  against  Protestants  in  the  entire 
world  could  be  concentrated  in  himself,  he  should  be  less  shocked  at 
all  these  errors  united  than  at  the  idea  of  asking  forgiveness  for  them. 

Jeremy  Taylor,  on  his  part,  shows  the  necessity  of  a  constant 
recourse  to  the  authority  of  individual  reason.  The  authority  of 
reason  he  held  to  be  the  best  judge.  Each  man  must  determine,  by 
and  for  himself,  the  nature  of  the  truth  revealed  in  the  Scriptures. 
God,  he  declared,  had  no  right  to  demand  from  us  perfect  freedom 
from  error,  but  He  had  the  right  to  demand  that  we  should  seek  to 
avoid  it.  He  who  did  not  resolve  to  seek  truth  for  himself,  virtually 
gave  himself  up  with  indifference  to  the  acceptance  of  truth  or  error. 
Might  we  not  suppose  these  to  be  the  words  of  Channing,  uttered 
some  two  centuries  afterwards  ? 

Among  the  factors  which  contributed  to  the  progress  of  religious 
liberty  in  England,  we  must  recognize,  side  by  side  with  the  Lati- 

1.   Tulloch   Rational  Theology  in  England  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. 


THE    PROGRESS    OF    FREE    INQUIRY.  21 

tudinarian  tendencies  which  thus  showed  themselves  in  the  Established 
Church,  the  multitude  of  sects  which,  from  the  time  of  Edward  VI., 
strove  to  carry  out,  beyond  the  pale  of  Anglicanism,  the  logical  evo- 
lution of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  Within  fifty  years,  indeed, 
English  Protestantism  passed  through,  in  a  reverse  direction,  so  to 
speak,  all  the  stages  which  the  Christian  Church,  as  a  whole,  had 
required  several  centuries  to  cross  in  order  to  attain  its  complete 
development  in  the  Roman  hierarchy.  It  was,  in  the  first  place,  the 
rejection  of  the  Papal  supremacy  which  gave  birth  to  the  Anglican 
Church.  Afterwards,  those  proscribed  by  Queen  Mary,  who,  during 
their  exile,  had  come  into  contact  with  the  Calvinists  of  the  Continent, 
clamoured  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  for  the  introduction  of  the 
Presbyterian  organization,  which  placed  the  government  of  the  Church 
in  assemblies  of  ministers  and  elders.  The  Presbyterians,  however, 
merely  sought  to  reform  the  National  Church  by  the  suppression  of 
the  Episcopate  and  the  Liturgy.  But  the  Independents  soon  arose, 
and  they,  repulsing  all  interference  of  the  Civil  Power  in  questions  of 
ecclesiastical  organization,  demanded  absolute  freedom  for  the  indi- 
vidual congregations,  as  well  in  their  relations  to  each  other  as  in 
their  common  relation  to  the  State.  At  length,  the  Anabaptists,  the 
Quakers,  the  Seekers,  the  "Fifth  Monarchy  Men,"  and  the  other 
sects  which  sprang  up  during  the  troubles  of  the  first  Revolution, 
endeavoured  to  suppress  all  kinds  of  ecclesiastical  functions  in  order 
to  give  free  scope  to  individual  inspiration,  in  imitation  of  those 
primitive  assemblies  which  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  show  us  under 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.1 

This  curious  manifestation  of  Atavism  finds  an  explanation  in  the 
increasing  desire  to  literally  follow  the  Scriptures,  not  only  in  matters 
of  doctrine,  but  also  in  the  method  of  ecclesiastical  organization. 
This  exclusive  respect  for  the  letter  of  Scripture  had,  it  must  be 
admitted,  nothing  in  common  with  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  nor  even 
with  the  principle  of  religious  toleration  ;  for,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
greater  part  of  the  sects  which  sprang  from  the  Puritan  movement, 
have  shown  themselves  more  opposed  to  the  progress  of  Rationalism 
than  the  Anglican  Church.  But,  in  asserting  their  claim  to  the  right 
of  existence,   they  thereby  strongly  promoted   the   general   liberty. 

I.  J.  J.  Tayler.     A  Retrospect  of  the  Religious  Life  of  England.     Page  126. 


22  THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE    INQUIRY. 

By  their  very  multiplicity  they  could  not  fail  to  develop  the  habit  of 
constant  recourse  to  individual  judgment  in  matters  of  belief.  For  at 
least  a  certain  number  of  their  congregations,  indeed,  the  absence  of 
any  standard  of  doctrine  or  discipline,  together  with  the  centrifugal 
force  which  removed  them  more  widely  every  day  from  traditional 
Christianity,  could  not  fail  to  insensibly  facilitate  their  transition  to 
opinions  more  and  more  advanced  and  to  soon  lead  them,  both  in 
logic  and  in  boldness,  beyond  the  restrained  audacity  of  the  Latitudi- 
narian  party,  whom  the  Articles  of  the  Anglican  Church  held  in  check. 
It  is  these  circumstances  which  gave  birth  to  Unitarianism. 

The  persecutions  directed  against  the  Dissenters  by  the  two  first 
Stuarts  merely  served  to  multiply  the  number  of  sects  and  to  call  forth 
the  energy  of  their  adherents.  At  about  the  time  of  the  earlier 
Revolution,  Thomas  Edwards,  the  author  of  the  Ga?igrce7ia,  stated 
that  there  were  in  England  176  distinct  sects;  and  when,  after  the 
passing  triumph  of  the  "Saints'  Republic,"  England  returned  into 
the  fold  of  royalty  and  Anglicanism,  the  Dissenters  remained  none 
the  less  an  element  which  had  to  be  considered  in  all  the  future 
religious,  intellectual,  and  political  movements  of  the  English  nation. 

At  the  Restoration,  an  outbreak  of  licence  succeeded  the  excess  of 
social  rigour  which  prevailed  in  the  preceding  period,  as  is  usually 
the  case  after  every  too  abrupt  or  exaggerated  reform.  This  re-action, 
of  which  Hobbes  was  the  principal  representative  in  philosophy,  could 
not  be  other  than  favourable  to  the  cause  of  intellectual  liberty. 
Hobbes,  it  is  true,  after  having  destroyed  the  very  foundation  of  all 
religion,  of  all  morality,  and  of  all  liberty,  entrusted  to  the  Sovereign 
the  absolute  right  to  determine  the  religious  opinions,  as  well  as  the 
public  and  private  duties,  of  his  subjects.  But,  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Established  Church,  the  Latitudinarian  party  had  resumed  their 
work  of  emancipation,  with  the  Glanvils,  the  Hookers,  the  Berkeleys, 
and  other  theologians  of  the  same  school,  to  whom  Mr.  Lecky,  an 
author  by  no  means  favourable,  as  a  rule,  to  the  Anglican  Church, 
attributes  the  honour  of  having  been  the  true  founders  of  religious 
liberty  in  England.1 

But  we  must  not  forget  that,  as  early  as  the  seventeenth  century, 

the  direction  of  the  intellectual  movement  ceases  to  belong  exclusively 

I.  W.  Lecky.  History  of  the  Rise  and  Influence  of  Rationalism  in  Europe. 
Vol.  II.,  page  72. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE   INQUIRY.  23 

to  the  theologians.  First  of  all,  it  is  Lord  Bacon  who  establishes  the 
experimental  or  inductive  method,  and  thus  opens  the  way  to  the 
Sensational  School.  Then  comes  Locke,  who  seeks  to  explain  all 
mental  phenomena  by  the  impressions  made  on  the  senses  and  by  the 
association  of  ideas.  Lord  Bacon  carefully  separated  religion  from 
philosophy ;  Locke,  however,  did  nothing  of  the  sort,  but  even  claimed 
to  submit  the  truth  of  Christianity  to  the  test  of  his  method.  In  his 
celebrated  work  on  The  Reasonableness  of  Christianity,  he  maintains 
that  the  human  mind,  shut  up,  as  it  is,  in  the  phenomenal  world, 
cannot  of  itself  attain  to  the  full  possession  of  religious  truth.  This 
truth  must,  therefore,  be  communicated  to  us  by  an  external  revelation. 
But  by  what  means  are  we  to  recognize  the  authenticity  of  this  super- 
natural communication  ?  By  miraculous  signs,  Locke  answers,  whose 
historical  occurrence  cannot  be  called  in  question.  Now  this  con- 
dition, he  adds,  is  exactly  met  by  the  Christian  Revelation,  which 
rests  on  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  and  the  history  of  miracles.  Still, 
it  is  for  reason  to  examine  these  credentials,  and  to  determine,  by 
the  aid  of  its  common  processes,  the  exact  meaning  and  extent  of 
the  revelation. 

Now  there  is  no  difficulty  to  seize  upon  the  weak  point  of  this 
argument,  which  entrusts  the  proof  of  supernatural  Christianity  to 
historical  documents.  But  criticism,  which  was  then  merely  in  its 
infancy,  especially  in  its  application  to  religious  history,  justified  the 
illusion  that  exegesis  might  become  the  most  valuable  ally  of  Biblical 
orthodoxy.  The  Bible,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  regarded  among 
Protestants  as  the  very  word  of  God,  addressing  itself  directly  to  the 
souls  of  believers.  No  one  would  have  previously  dared  to  apply  to 
the  Pentateuch,  to  the  Prophecies,  the  Gospels,  or  even  to  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  the  critical  process  employed  in  the  study  of  a  pro- 
fane author ;  and  it  would  have  been  regarded  as  sacrilege,  not  only 
to  discuss  the  date  of  their  composition  or  the  personality  of  their 
authors  or  compilers,  but  even  to  take  into  account  the  part  played 
by  the  surrounding  circumstances  of  time,  place,  passion,  and 
prejudice.  By  dissipating  this  atmosphere  of  traditional  inviola- 
bility in  the  interest  of  religious  truth,  Locke  paved  the  way  for  the 
great  critical  movement  which  was  destined,  not,  indeed,  to  confirm 
the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  as  the  author  of  The  Reasonableness  of 


24  THE   PROGRESS   OF   FREE   INQUIRY. 

Christianity  sincerely  supposed,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  to  eliminate 
the  supernatural  from  Christianity,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  con- 
ceded the  fullest  respect  for  its  moral  and  spiritual  elements. 

Side  by  side  with  Locke  and  the  Sensational  School,  but  in  this 
case  beyond  the  lines  of  Christianity,  the  Deistical  School  took  up 
the  defence  of  natural,  as  against  revealed,  religion.  This  movement 
originated  with  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  who  has  been  called  the 
Father  of  English  Deism.  Its  doctrines  were  based  entirely  on 
the  beliefs  which  its  author  considered  common  to  the  whole  human 
race.  For  instance  :  the  existence  of  God  ;  the  act  of  worship  em- 
bodied in  prayer ;  the  forgiveness  of  sin  by  repentance ;  and,  finally, 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  with  the  sanctions  of  a  future  life.  This 
was  to  apply  to  religion  itself  the  synthetic  method  which  Acontius 
had  adopted  in  order  to  obtain  the  fundamental  and  essential  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  from  the  beliefs  common  to  different  churches ; 
only,  in  opposition  to  Acontius,  Lord  Herbert  did  not  hesitate  to 
threaten  with  damnation  those  who  refused  to  accept  his  five  articles 
of  faith.  Illustrating  another  inconsistency,  more  than  one  example 
of  which  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  this 
philosopher,  who  denied  the  Biblical  revelation,  believed  he  had 
himself  been  honoured  by  a  special  revelation;  and  he  was  accustomed 
to  relate,  in  all  sincerity,  that,  having  one  day  cast  himself  on  his 
knees  to  ask  God  whether  he  should  do  right  in  publishing  his  book, 
he  received  the  divine  imprimatur,  by  means  of  a  sweet  and  distinct 
sound,  which  bore  no  resemblance  to  any  of  the  sounds  of  earth. 

It  was  this  doctrine  of  a  natural  Monotheism  which  was  developed 
successively  by  Blount,  Shaftesbury,  Woolston,  Tindal,  Chubb,  Collins, 
and  Bolingbroke.  Some  of  these  writers  openly  attacked  the  different 
forms  of  traditional  Christianity ;  others,  however,  simply  sought  to 
develop  the  principles  of  Deism  in  the  direction  of  the  special  philo- 
sophical schools  to  which  they  belonged.  But  whatever  favour  their 
works  may  have  enjoyed  among  the  superior  classes,  it  was  chiefly 
the  negative  side  of  their  doctrines  which  gained  them  adherents, 
and  we  have  no  knowledge  of  any  attempt  to  organize  a  system  of 
worship  on  the  basis  proposed  by  Lord  Herbert  or  his  successors.1 

I.  It  is  impossible  to  regard  in  a  serious  light  the  description  which  Collins  gives 
us  in  his  Pantheisticon  of  a  society  which  dined  together  periodically  in  order  to 
treat  of  religious  opinions  at  dessert,  while  they  at  the  same  time  made  use  of  an 


THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE    INQUIRY,  25 

Besides,  nothing  could  well  be  less  calculated  to  excite  religious 
feeling  than  this  cold  Theodicy,  which  made  of  God  a  skilful  mechanic, 
external  to  the  world  and  unnecessary  for  sustaining  the  order  of 
things.  In  France,  where  Deism  was  imported  by  Voltaire  and  de- 
veloped by  Rousseau,  it  furnished  a  philosophy  for  the  movement 
which  was  coming  into  existence  against  all  the  abuses  of  the  old 
regime,  and  it  may  be  said,  in  spite  of  the  failure  of  Robespierre,  and 
later,  of  the  Theophilanthropists  who  attempted  to  organize  it  into  a 
system  of  worship,  that  it  was  the  real  religion  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. But  reduced  to  maintaining  its  ground  in  England  as  a  pure 
speculation,  it  soon  succumbed  under  the  double  attack  of  positive 
religion  and  critical  philosophy.  By  the  second  third  of  the  century 
it  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  rapid  decay,  and  gradually  all  the  repre- 
sentatives of  British  science  or  literature,  of  any  distinction,  took 
up  a  position  among  its  adversaries.1  For  whilst  Middleton,  Butler, 
and  Paley  called  to  the  support  of  a  more  or  less  liberalized  theology, 
all  the  resources  of  criticism,  science,  and  contemporary  metaphysics, 
Hume  developed  his  universal  scepticism,  the  penetrating  logic  of 
which  was  as  merciless  in  its  bearing  upon  the  claims  of  Deism  as  it 
was  in  relation  to  traditional  Christianity.  With  Gibbon  the  last 
representative  of  the  school  founded  by  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury, 
was  destined  to  disappear. 

Never  has  there  seemed  to  be  more  complete  harmony  between 
reason  and  Christianity  than  during  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Locke  held  undisputed  sway  both  as  a  theologian  and  a 
philosopher.  Faith  presented  itself  as  no  longer  due  to  a  restriction 
of  free  inquiry,  but  as  a  consequence  of  scientific  demonstration. 
Theology  had  exclusive  recourse  to  the  method  of  induction,  the 
theory  of  innate  ideas  was  proscribed,  and  intuition  discredited  as 
tainted  with  mysticism.  It  was  by  external  observation  that  hence- 
forth the  existence  of  God  and  the  action  of  Providence  were  to  be 
demonstrated.  It  was  only  by  making  an  appeal  to  the  historical 
proofs  supplied  by  miracles  that  any  attempt  was  to  be  made  to  estab- 
lish the  validity  of  the  Christian  revelation,  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  the  obligations  of  morality. 

esoteric  liturgy  (v.  Ed.  Sayous — Les  Deistes  Anglais  etle  Christianisme  depuis  Toland 
jusqii1  a  Chubb.     I.  Vol.     Paris,  Fishbacher.     1882. 

I.  H.  Taine.     Histoire  de  la  litterature  Anglaise,  t.  iii,  page  160. 


26  THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY. 

But,  at  the  same  time,  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  a  better 
example  to  show  that  the  triumph  of  theology  is  not  always  that  of 
religion.  All  true  spirituality  seems  wanting  at  this  period.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  ruling  class,  worship  is  nothing  more  than  a  kind  of 
police  arrangement,  the  official  church  is  simply  an  institution  to 
regulate  public  morals;  and  no  one  is  scandalized  by  seeing  its 
ministers  adopt  the  common-place  life  of  the  country  squire.  Its 
prelates,  moreover,  only  occupy  themselves  in  securing  the  favour  of 
the  Court,  and  in  playing  the  wit  at  the  expense  of  the  last  of  the 
Deists.  The  enlightened  section  of  the  public  have  come  to  regard 
any  manifestation  of  religious  fervour  as  a  morbid  symptom,  or,  at 
least,  as  a  sign  of  bad  taste.  The  same  feeling  extends  even  to  the 
Dissenting  sects  who,  having  attained  to  a  position  of  relative  freedom, 
are  the  prey  of  a  sort  of  religious  Positivism  equally  removed  from 
indifference  and  enthusiasm.1 

This  state  of  things  arose  from  the  fact  that  though  the  Sensational 
theology  answered  to  the  utilitarian  tendencies  of  the  age,  it  could 
create  none  of  the  emotional  and  idealistic  manifestations  which  play 
so  large  a  part  in  the  genesis  of  the  religious  sentiment.  As  early  as 
the  first  half  of  the  century,  Wesley  and  Whitfield  had  given  the 
signal  of  a  re-action  by  bringing  into  prominence  the  mystical  aspects 
of  Christianity  and  by  specially  insisting  upon  the  greatness  of  the 
sacrifice  accomplished  by  Jesus.  Still,  their  religious  method,  which 
substituted  the  living  and  concrete  figure  of  the  traditional  Christ  for 
cold  metaphysical  abstractions,  had,  from  its  deficiency  in  rational 
elements,  but  a  slight  hold  upon  the  educated  classes  who  had  formed 
their  convictions  in  the  school  of  Locke.  It  was  only,  indeed,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  Coleridge  had  attacked 
Sensationalism  with  new  weapons,  that  a  system  better  fitted  to  satisfy 
the  deeper  aspirations  of  the  religious  consciousness  was  seen  to  spring 
up  among  liberal  theologians. 

Coleridge,  who  was  the  son  of  an  Anglican  clergyman,  passed 
through  Unitarianism  before  taking  orders  in  the  Established  Church. 
But  he  was,  above  all  things,  an  adept  in  German  idealism,  which  he 
had  had   an   opportunity  of  studying  during   his   residence  at  the 

I.  Thomas  Erskine  May.  Constitutional  History  of  England.  Vol.  III., 
page  82. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF    FREE   INQUIRY.  27 

different  German  Universities  in  1799,  and  which  he  did  not  cease 
to  teach  and  spread  in  England  for  more  than  twenty-five  years. 
The  influence  of  his  writings  on  the  succeeding  generation  was 
enormous;  it  can  only,  indeed,  be  compared  with  that  of  Carlyle, 
that  grand  and  fantastic  genius,  who,  in  turn,  has  aimed  such  rude 
thrusts  at  the  Sensational  theology  of  the  preceding  century. 

The  philosophical  system  of  Coleridge  rests  entirely  on  the  dis- 
tinction between  reason  and  understanding.  Adopting  the  theory  of 
Kant,  that  man  possesses  in  reason,  thus  regarded,  a  special  organ 
for  placing  himself  in  contact  with  the  absolute  realities  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  world,  he  concluded  therefrom  that  God  has  not  limited 
Himself  to  entering  into  relations  with  mankind  by  a  merely  local 
and  temporary  revelation,  but  that  He  never  ceases  to  speak  to  us 
directly  by  the  voice  of  conscience,  which  is  the  interpreter  of  pure 
reason.  Not  that  Coleridge  called  in  question  the  Biblical  revelation, 
but  it  was  the  conformity  of  this  revelation  with  the  absolute  laws  of 
religion  and  morality,  which  seemed  to  him  the  best  proof  of  its 
authenticity. 

The  consequences  of  this  doctrine  will  be  readily  seen.  On  the 
one  hand,  by  recognizing  in  every  man  a  divine  element,  it  allowed 
the  fundamental  dogma  of  the  Incarnation  to  be  no  longer  regarded 
as  a  local  and  unique  occurrence,  and  one  very  difficult  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  the  most  characteristic  attributes  of  the  Divine  Nature,  but 
as  a  symbol  of  permanent  and  universal  communion  between  God 
and  humanity.  On  the  other  hand,  it  brought  back  the  attention  of 
the  churches  from  the  previously  absorbing  thought  of  a  future  life  to 
a  consideration  of  the  best  means  for  improving  the  present  world. 
And,  further,  by  regarding  miracles  as  a  possible  consequence  rather 
than  as  a  necessary  proof  of  divine  activity,  it  tended  to  make  reason, 
and  not  Scripture,  the  supreme  standard  of  truth.  The  historical 
details  of  the  Biblical  tradition  thus  fell  back  into  secondary  import- 
ance ;  so  much  so,  that  even  the  verification  of  defects  and  errors  in 
the  compilation  of  the  sacred  books  could  not  henceforth  weaken  the 
great  moral  and  religious  truths  of.  Christianity. 

During  the  ages  of  religious  fervour,  it  was  to  Scripture  that  an 
appeal  was  made  for  the  solution  of  all  scientific  problems.  The 
most  striking  instance  of  this  naive  faith  is,  perhaps,  the  celebrated 


28  THE    PROGRESS   OF   FREE   INQUIRY. 

treatise,  written  in  the  sixth  century,  by  the  monk,  Cosmas,  in  order 
to  prove,  among  other  applications  of  the  Bible  to  geography,  that 
the  earth  could  only  be  a  parallelogram  having  a  length  equal  to  twice 
its  breadth,  for  this  irrefragable  reason  that  such  was  the  form  of  the 
Mosaic  Tabernacle,  and  that  St.  Paul  speaks  somewhere  of  the  earth 
as  a  tabernacle.  Gradually,  however,  the  rights  of  science  were 
timidly  advanced,  in  cases  where  it  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  con- 
flicted with  theology.  At  a  later  period,  an  absolute  independence 
was  supposed  to  be  simultaneously  conceded  to  the  two  rivals  ;  not, 
indeed,  by  giving  to  each  of  them  a  separate  sphere,  but  by  attributing 
to  them,  respectively,  the  supremacy  according  as  a  question  was 
regarded  from  a  scientific  or  a  religious  point  of  view.  The  same  indi- 
vidual, for  instance,  might  admit,  as  a  scientist,  that  the  earth  revolved 
round  the  sun ;  as  a  religious  man,  that  the  sun  turned  round  the 
earth.  The  disciples  of  Descartes,  again,  had  a  right  to  maintain,  as 
philosophers,  that  the  mechanism  of  the  universe  is  to  be  explained 
by  exclusively  physical  causes,  and  as  Christians,  that  they  did  not 
believe  anything  of  the  kind.  Still  such  contradictions,  however  un- 
consciously they  may  occur,  are  too  clear  a  violation  of  the  unity  of 
the  human  mind  not  to  prove  detrimental  to  orthodoxy,  as  soon  as 
the  progress  of  knowledge  begins  to  converge  towards  the  negation  of 
the  supernatural. 

Now,  since  the  first  blow  which  Capernicus  gave  to  the  cosmogony 
of  the  Bible,  there  has  never  ceased  to  be  a  growing  antagonism 
between  the  affirmations  of  science  and  the  letter  of  Revelation.  The 
earth,  which  the  Scriptures  had  made  the  centre  of  creation  and  the 
place  where  God  had  thought  it  right  to  offer  himself  up  as  a  sacrifice 
for  the  redemption  of  humanity,  saw  itself  suddenly  relegated,  by  the 
marvellous  generalizations  of  the  Newtons  and  Laplaces,  to  the  rank 
of  a  secondary  satellite, — a  grain  of  cosmic  dust  lost  in  the  immensity 
of  the  universe.  Then  came  the  science  of  Geology,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  the  Playfairs  and  the  Lyells,  not  only  overthrew  the  received 
interpretation  of  Gensis,  but  at  the  same  time  destroyed  the  central 
doctrine  of  Calvinism,  by  carrying  back  the  ravages  of  suffering  and 
death  far  beyond  the  first  sin  of  the  first  man.  Concurrently  with 
these  changes,  parallel  discoveries  took  place  in  all  branches  of  posi- 
tive knowledge,  which  led  to  an  indefinite  extension  in  the  action  of 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY.  29 

the  general  and  permanent  laws  of  nature,  and  reduced  to  this  extent 
the  sphere  given  up  to  accidental  rule  and,  consequently,  to  miracu- 
lous agencies.  Even  in  the  question  of  religion  itself,  for  instance, 
there  is  not  a  system  of  belief  whose  formation,  growth,  decay,  and 
disappearance  has  not  been  explained  as  due  to  natural  causes  by  a 
new  science,  which  has  thus  given  to  all  forms  of  faith  a  place  in  the 
intellectual  and  moral  development  of  humanity,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  has  reduced  historical  Christianity  to  a  mere  stage  or  passing 
form  of  our  religious  evolution. 

Such  is  the  undoubted  conclusion  to  which  impartial  researches  in 
Biblical  criticism  have  led.  Locke  thought  he  had  found  in  exegesis 
the  best  support  for  a  belief  in  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity. 
The  Tubingen  school  began  the  demolition  of  this  castle  in  the  air, 
and  it  may  be  confidently  affirmed  that  there  is  hardly  a  stone  of  it 
left  standing.  Not  only  have  the  miracles  and  prophecy  lost  all  cre- 
dence from  a  historical  point  of  view,  but,  further,  the  authenticity  of 
the  Gospels  has  shared  the  fate  of  the  tradition  which  attributes  the 
Penteteuch  to  Moses.  And  just  as  it  has  become  a  settled  conviction 
that  the  introduction  of  Monotheism  among  the  Hebrews  was  of  late 
occurrence,  so  critics  have  succeeded  in  discovering,  in  the  most  vener- 
able documents  of  the  primitive  church,  traces  of  the  Greek  and 
Oriental  elements  which  entered  into  the  formation  of  Christianity. 
Thus,  while  Revelation  found  itself  in  antagonism  with  the  increasing 
progress  of  the  Natural  Sciences,  it  saw  itself  deprived  of  the  testi- 
mony of  history,  which  remained,  to  a  certain  extent,  its  last  citadel. 

Once  introduced  into  England,  this  double  current,  which  is,  at 
the  same  time,  critical  and  affirmative,  could  not  fail  to  exercise  a 
profound  influence  upon  the  philosophical  and  religious  ideas  of  the 
most  enlightened  minds.  Even  Protestant  theology  could  not  escape 
its  action.  "  The  tendencies  of  scientific  and  of  historical  research 
being  thus  in  the  same  direction,"  says  Dr.  Martineau,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  and  impartial  writers  upon  religious  subjects  in 
England,1  "  and  meeting  with  no  adequate  counteraction  from  con- 
servative resistance,  a  general  disposition  is  manifested  among  churches 
open  to  theologic  change,  no  longer  to  lay  stress  on  the  miraculous 

I.  The  Introduction  to  the  2nd  Edition  of  J.  J.    Tayler's  Retrospect  of  the 
Religious  Life  of  England,  page  36. 


30  THE   PROGRESS   OF   FREE   INQUIRY. 

elements  of  early  Christian  tradition,  to  regard  them  as  rather  weaken- 
ing than  strengthening  the  authority  of  the  narrative,  and  to  frame  a 
conception  of  the  origin  of  Christianity  which  shall  not  be  dependent 
on  their  abjective  reality.  .  .  .  Even,  however,  among  the  con- 
servative theologians  a  significant  silence  respecting  the  '  signs  and 
wonders '  on  which  they  (the  stories  of  the  bodily  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Christ)  rest  indicates  that  the  old  emphatic  appeal  to 
them  is  known  to  be  out  of  keeping  with  the  feeling  of  the  time,  and 
can  no  longer  be  hopefully  urged."  For  a  long  time  past,  the  theo- 
logians who  are  still  faithful  to  the  old  beliefs  have  sought  to  avoid 
embarrassment  by  the  hypothesis  that  miracles  do  not  necessarily 
imply  the  violation  of  natural  laws  :  that  they  may  simply  be  the  result 
of  a  higher  law  hitherto  undiscovered  by  the  investigations  of  science. 
This  is  what  Mr.  Lecky  calls  meeting  the  Rationalists  halfway.1 

These  compromises,  however,  of  which  Coleridge  had  set  the 
example,  could  not  arrest  the  progress  of  those  who,  like  Carlyle, 
desired  to  apply  the  method  of  Rationalism  with  rigorous  logical 
consistency.  As  early  as  the  second  third  of  this  century,  German 
idealism  produced  in  England  a  school  which  openly  rejected  Reve- 
lation in  favour  of  the  principle  of  pure  Theism.  Between  the 
Deists  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  Theists  of  the  nineteenth 
there  is  this  great  difference,  however,  that  while  the  first  formulated 
a  mechanical  conception  of  the  universe,  and  made  of  God  a  Being 
external  to  creation,  the  second  make  the  principle  of  divine  im- 
manence in  the  universe  the  basis  of  religion,  and  consequently 
regard  reason  and  conscience  as  alike  organs  of  the  divine  in  man. 

The  principal  representatives  of  these  doctrines  in  England  to-day 
are  Professor  F.  W.  Newman  and  Miss  F.  Power  Cobbe.  "Their 
pure  Theism,"  says  Dr.  Martineau,2  "is  so  noble  a  product  of  the 
most  capable  thought  and  truest  inward  experience  that,  if  it  only 
were  an  historic  instead  of  a  private  gift,  and  could  come  to  men  as 
inspiration  instead  of  reason,  it  would  regenerate  the  world." 

Professor  Newman's  work,  The  Soul :  its  Sorrows  and  Aspirations, 
although  published  thirty  years  ago,  has  remained  the  standard  expo- 
sition of  the  methods  and  doctrines  which  characterise  English  Theism. 

1.  Lecky.     History  of  Rationalism  in  Ezirope.     Vol.  II.,  page  178. 

2.  Introduction  to  the  2nd  Edition  of  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Tayler's  work,  page  38. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY.  31 

As  to  Miss  Cobbe,  who  has  equally  given  herself  up  to  the  claims  of 
subjective  idealism,  she  has  known  how  to  unite  a  power  of  philo- 
sophical reasoning,  rare  enough  in  her  sex,  with  a  liveliness  of 
imagination  and  a  warmth  of  sentiment  which  give  to  her  style  a 
special  and  peculiar  charm. 

This  school,  which  owes  its  origin  to  Kant,  through  the  inter- 
mediate agency  of  Coleridge  and  Carlyle,  remains  to-day  as  young 
and  vigorous  as  ever.  Based  upon  pure  reason,  freed  from  all  com- 
promise with  revealed  theology,  and  accepting  a  metaphysical  system 
which  is  sufficiently  in  harmony  with  the  positive  sciences  to  follow 
the  current  of  their  discoveries  without  inconsistency,  and  even  some- 
times to  draw  new  arguments  from  them,  it  tends  more  and  more  to 
take  the  lead  in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  those  recently  pro- 
pounded doctrines  which  are  shaking  the  foundation  of  natural 
religion  and  even  attacking  the  principles  hitherto  regarded  as  the 
basis  of  philosophy  and  of  morals.  To  say  the  least,  it  possesses 
the  great  merit  of  having  been  the  first  to  demonstrate,  by  the  mere 
fact  of  its  existence,  the  possibility  of  reconciling  the  religious  senti- 
ment, and  even  a  certain  degree  of  mysticism,  with  the  unlimited 
exercise  of  free  inquiry. 

The  emancipation  thus  gradually  secured  in  the  domain  of  opinion 
could  not  fail  to  produce  a  corresponding  effect  in  the  laws  of  the  land. 
From  the  earliest  period  of  the  Reformation,  men  of  generous  senti- 
ments had  raised  their  voices  in  favour  of  the  largest  religious  toleration. 
But  freedom  of  religious  opinion  was  a  conception  too  much  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  received  ideas  of  the  age  for  it  to  have  the  least  chance 
of  making  itself  heard  by  the  Government  and,  above  all,  by  the 
people  themselves.  Among  the  various  Protestant  nations,  England 
is  perhaps  the  one  in  which  this  liberty  was  first  practically  enjoyed, 
but  it  is  also  that  in  which  the  principle  has  been  slowest  to  secure 
recognition  as  a  question  of  legal  right — an  inevitable  result  of  that 
condition  of  things  in  which  the  subjection  of  the  Church  to  the 
State  makes  of  all  heresy,  according  to  the  theory  of  Hobbes,  an  act 
of  insubordination  to  the  institutions  of  the  country. 

It  is  hardly  two  centuries  ago  since  the  statute,  De  haeretico  com- 
burendo,  was  abrogated.  At  the  Restoration,  all  meetings  of  more 
than  five  persons  for  the  purpose  of  worship,  except  at  the  Parish 


32  THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY. 

Church,  were  prohibited  under  pain  of  imprisonment  and  trans- 
portation. No  Nonconformist  minister  could  approach  a  town  or 
municipal  borough  within  a  radius  of  five  miles ;  no  Dissenter  could 
teach  even  in  a  private  school.  The  crime  of  heresy  grew  blacker  in 
proportion  as  the  heretic  deviated  from  the  official  type  in  the  matter 
of  doctrine  and  worship.  The  profession  of  Unitarianism  was  regarded 
as  blasphemy ;  a  Roman  Catholic  could  neither  acquire  nor  inherit 
property  without  abjuring  his  faith.  Towards  the  end  of  the  Restora- 
tion period  fifteen  hundred  Quakers  perished  in  prison.  The  forms 
and  ceremonies  of  the  State,  as  a  civil  institution,  were  identified 
with  the  sacraments  of  the  Established  Church.  No  citizen  could 
hold  any  public  office  if  he  had  not  taken  the  communion  during  the 
year,  and,  to  avoid  deception  in  this  matter,  a  law  was  passed  for 
punishing  Dissenters  who  might  present  themselves  at  the  communion 
service  of  an  Anglican  Church.1 

A  relaxation  of  these  rigours  commenced  at  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
when  Anglicans  and  Dissenters  joined  hand  in  hand  to  overthrow  the 
throne  of  the  Stuarts.  Still  it  was  only  at  about  the  end  of  last  cen- 
tury that  England  resolutely  entered  upon  the  course  of  toleration. 
To-day,  as  Lord  Coleridge  recently  stated,  the  acquittal  of  Mr. 
Bradlaugh,  who  had  been  prosecuted  on  the  charge  of  blasphemy  for 
his  attacks  upon  Christianity,2  has  made  it  clear  that  the  Christian 
religion  has  ceased  to  be  identical  with  the  laws  of  the  country. 

All  denominations  have  now  secured  the  legal  right  to  existence,  as 
well  as  to  the  possession  of  their  churches,  schools,  and  the  like,  as 
ordinary  property,  while  they  are  perfectly  free  to  spread  their  views 
by  teaching  and  preaching.     No  one  can  be  compelled  to  take  part  in 

1.  Thomas  Erskine  May.  The  Constitutional  History  of  England.  Vol.  III., 
page  76. 

2.  Messrs.  Foote,  Ramsey,  and  Kemp  have  been  less  fortunate  in  an  analogous 
case.  But  it  appears  that  the  caricatures  published  in  the  Freethinker  were  possessed 
of  a  bearing  which  distinguishes  them  completely  from  the  attacks  made  upon 
Christianity  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh.  Thus  Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  Mrs.  Besant  both  stated, 
in  the  course  of  the  trial,  that  they  had  ceased  to  take  part  in  the  propagandism  of 
the  Freethinker  horn.  November,  1881,  in  consequence  of  the  coarse  nature  of  its 
drawings  (v.  Inquirer  of  the  28th  of  April,  1883).  Still  it  may  be  objected  that  if 
Messrs.  Foote,  Ramsey,  and  Kemp  were  really  guilty  of  a  breach  of  public  morals, 
they  should  have  been  prosecuted  by  an  appeal  to  the  Acts  which  punish  such  an 
offence,  and  not  by  calling  into  play  superannuated  Statutes,  which  misleads  the 
public  mind  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  offence,  and  also  as  to  the  motives 
which  ensured  its  condemnation. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY.  33 

any  form  of  religious  worship  or  even  to  assist  in  its  maintenance. 
The  Universities  have  been  prohibited,  except  as  regards  degrees  con- 
firmed by  the  theological  faculty,  from  making  attendance  at  their 
lectures  or  the  sitting  for  degrees,  dependent  upon  any  kind  of  theo- 
logical opinions.     All  distinctively  denominational  teaching  has  been 
excluded  from  the  Board  or  rate-supported  schools ;   and  voluntary 
schools,  subject  to  State  inspection,  can  no  longer  obtain  grants  except 
when  their  religious  teaching  is  made  optional  by  the  use  of  the 
"  conscience  clause,"  and  given  beyond  the  hours  of  ordinary  school 
work.     The  State,  in  its  civil  capacity,  has  provided  for  the  registra- 
tion of  births  and  marriages  apart  from  the  intervention  of  the  parish 
clergyman,  and  even  without  any  religious  service  whatever.     The 
Burials'  question,  which  is  complicated  by  the  claims  of  ecclesiastical 
property,  received  a  partial  solution  in  the  Bill  of  1879,  which  con- 
ceded to  Dissenters  the  right  of  burial  in  the  parish  church-yards  by 
their  own  ministers ;   and  everything  leads  to  the  belief  that,  before 
long,  the  matter  will  be  definitively  settled  by  the  removal  of  all  dis- 
tinction between  the  consecrated  and  the  un-consecrated  portions  of 
the  cemeteries.     And,  finally,  not  only  is  the  form  of  a  man's  religious 
belief  no  longer  permitted  to  influence  his  rights  as  a  citizen,  but, 
further,  with  the  exception  that  Atheists  are  still  excluded  from  Parlia- 
ment, all  civil  and  military  posts  are  tenable,  irrespective  of  whether 
those  who  hold  them  profess  any  religious  opinions  or  not. 

Those  reforms — which  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  and 
other  modern  Constitutions  of  the  same  type,  have  sketched  out  with 
a  clear  and  general  import  in  a  few  lines — represent  in  England  the 
difficult  and  complex  labour  of  several  generations.  There  is  not  one 
of  these  measures  which  before  becoming  law,  was  not  successively 
rejected  in  several  parliamentary  sessions,  if  not  in  several  Parliaments, 
by  insensibly  decreasing  majorities.  There  is  not  one  of  them  which 
was  not  introduced  as  a  partial  measure,  applicable  first  to  one  sect 
and  then  to  another,  till  at  last  by  a  continued  extension  it  assumed 
the  character  of  a  general  principle. 

This  characteristic  method  of  English  legislation  is  specially  illus- 
trated in  the  question  of  the  Parliamentary  Oath.  In  France,  in 
Belgium,  and  indeed  in  the  majority  of  constitutional  states,  the  invo- 
cation of  the  divinity,  as  yet  retained  or  but  partly  suppressed  in 
judicial  affairs,  has  long  since  disappeared  from  the  political  oath. 


34  THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE  INQUIRY. 

The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  have,  for  practical  purposes,  readily 
conceded  to  witnesses  in  the  courts  of  justice,  the  right  to  pledge 
themselves  to  truth  by  the  oath  of  their  choice,  or  even  to  confine 
themselves  simply  to  a  solemn  affirmation.  As  regards  the  Parliamen- 
tary Oath,  however,  they  have  only  consented  to  widen  the  terms  of 
the  formula  by  small  extensions,  made  after  long  periods  of  resistance 
and  under  the  continued  pressure  of  public  opinion. 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  proposal  to  abolish  the  Test  Act,  which 
rigidly  excluded  every  Dissenter  from  the  Legislature  by  imposing  upon 
him  an  oath  involving  adhesion  to  the  Established  Church,  was  first 
made  in  Parliament  during  the  session  of  1787.  It  was  not  till  1828, 
however,  that  the  measure  was  passed  for  the  relief  of  Protestant 
Nonconformists ;  and  not  till  the  following  year  for  the  Roman 
Catholics.  Henceforth  Parliament  was  accessible  to  any  one  who  was 
willing  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Crown  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian. 
In  1833,  the  election  of  Mr.  Pease  led  to  the  right  being  granted  to 
the  Quakers,  and  the  Moravian  Brethren  with  other  separatists,  to 
substitute  a  simple  affirmation  for  the  oath,  which  is  what  English 
Liberals  claim  to-day  on  behalf  of  those  who  cannot  conscientiously 
make  a  direct  or  indirect  appeal  to  the  Deity.  As  early  as  1830  a 
special  form  of  the  Oath  was  demanded  on  behalf  of  the  Jews ;  it  was 
not  obtained,  however,  till  1858,  after  Parliament  had  several  times 
annulled  the  election  of  Mr.  Lionel  de  Rothschild,  who  was  each  time 
re-elected  by  the  city  of  London.  The  "  true  faith  of  a  Christian  "  did 
•not  survive  this  new  breach,  and  a  readjustment  of  the  general  formula, 
which  was  adopted  in  1866,  extended  its  application  to  all  Theists, 
whatever  their  special  opinions  respecting  the  Supreme  Being. 

The  reader  will  remember  the  conditions  under  which  the  question 
has  been  raised  afresh  by  the  return  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh  to  Parliament. 
Personal  objections  to  the  junior  member  for  Northampton,  have 
doubtless  had  much  influence  in  the  rejection  of  the  Bill  which  pro- 
posed to  substitute  a  simple  declaration  of  allegiance  for  the  existing 
Oath.  But  when  we  call  to  mind  the  precedents  of  Parliamentary 
history,  and  when  at  the  same  time  we  reflect  upon  the  insignificant 
majority  which  threw  out  Mr.  Gladstone's  Affirmation  Bill,  we  may 
safely  predict  that  many  sessions  of  Parliament  will  not  pass  before  this 
last  barrier  to  liberty  of  conscience  has  been  removed  from  the  Legis- 
lature of  England. 


CHAPTER     II. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EVOLUTION  AND  THE  CRISIS 
OF  THEISM. 


What  is  at  stake  in  the  conflict  between  religion  and  science — The  idea  of  develop- 
ment in  contemporary  philosophy — Increasing  generality  of  the  laws  which 
explain  the  different  groups  of  phenomena — Darwin  and  his  Theory  of  the  origin 
of  species — Stuart  Mill  and  the  relativity  of  human  knowledge — The  union  of 
this  doctrine  with  evolution — Herbert  Spencer's  postulate  :  the  Persistence  of 
Force — Extension  of  the  evolution  hypothesis  to  all  orders  of  phenomena — The 
affirmation  of  the  Unknowable  as  an  absolute  and  unconditioned  Reality — The 
relation  of  this  doctrine  to  the  religious  sentiment — Mr.  Gladstone's  humorous 
remark — The  theory  of  evolution  in  antagonism  with  Christian  orthodoxy — 
Huxley's  Lay  Sermons — Tyndall's  Belfast  address — Rapid  progress  of  evolution — 
The  Agnostics — The  religion  of  the  future,  according  to  the  author  of  Ecce  Homo 
— Scientific  attempts  to  reconcile  the  essential  principles  of  Theism  with  the 
doctrine  of  evolution — Dr.  Carpenter's  theory  referring  force  to  volition— Mr.  W. 
Graham  and  finality  in  evolution — The  opinions  of  Matthew  Arnold  and  Balfour 
Stuart — Distinction  between  the  scientific  theory  of  evolution  and  its  philosophical 
application — The  metaphysical  systems  which,  according  to  Mr.  J.  Sully,  may  be 
legitimately  grafted  upon  the  theory  of  evolution — Theological  attempts  to  main- 
tain the  principles  of  Theism  with  the  sacrifice  of  the  First  Cause — Dr.  Martineau's 
thesis — Religious  opinions  in  the  different  strata  of  English  society. 


Up  to  the  present,  we  have  seen  the  attacks  of  reason  merely  directed 
against  the  intervention  of  the  supernatural,  whilst  the  verdict  of  philo- 
sophy and  history  in  condemning  the  pretensions  of  Revealed  Religion, 
has  had  no  other  result  than  the  confirmation  of  Natural  Religion. 
But  at  about  the  middle  of  this  century  a  current  of  ideas  was  set  in 
motion,  which  threatens  to  sweep  away  the  very  foundations  of  Theism. 
No  one  can  close  his  eyes  to  the  evidence  of  this  crisis,  which  relates 
to  questions  incomparably  more  important  for  the  moral  and  religious 
future  of  society,  than  the  authenticity  of  the  prophecies,  and  the 
credibility  of  the  miracles,  the  direct  or  the  indirect  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  possibility  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the  necessity  for 
Redemption.  What  is  now  at  stake  is  the  personality,  the  wisdom, 
the  goodness,  and  the  power  of  God ;  the  reality  of  a  First  and  a  Final 
Cause,  the  immortality  and,  indeed,  the  very  existence  of  the  soul,  the 
freedom  of  the  will  and  the  idea  of  duty. 


36  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF    EVOLUTION 

These  beliefs  have  doubtless  long  been  proof  against  all  attacks : 
the  Materialism  of  Hobbes,  the  Sensationalism  of  Condillac,  the  Scep- 
ticism of  Hume,  and  the  Atheism  of  Feuerbach  have  in  turn  blunted 
their  arms  in  assaults  upon  them.  But  now  it  is  a  question  of  a  com- 
batant incomparably  more  redoubtable,  inasmuch  indeed  as  this  new- 
enemy  presents  himself  exclusively  in  the  guise  of  scientific  armour. 
I  am  speaking  here  of  the  philosophy  of  evolution. 

Thus,  as  M.  Taine  remarks  with  regard  to  Carlyle,  in  his  fine  work 
on  English  Literature,  we  are  living  in  a  current  of  ideas,  which 
having  its  source  in  Germany,  impregnates  to-day  the  philosophy,  the 
literature  and  the  science  of  the  whole  western  civilization.  This  is 
the  tendency  to  introduce  into  everything  the  principle  of  development, 
of  entwickelung,  or  according  to  the  definition  of  the  eminent  French 
critic — of  the  mutual  dependence  which  connects  the  terms  of  a 
series  of  events,  and  binds  them  all  to  some  abstract  property, 
conceived  of  as  common  to  the  whole  series.1 

Exclusively  philosophic  at  the  commencement  with  Leibnitz,  Kant, 
Fichte,  and  Hegel,  this  doctrine  has  received  from  the  experimental 
method  the  most  striking  confirmation  which  it  has  ever  been  the  lot 
of  any  speculative  system  to  obtain.  All  the  scientific  discoveries 
made  within  the  last  fifty  years — and  these  are  sufficiently  astonishing 
to  justify  the  enthusiasm,  if  not  the  infatuation,  of  our  age  with  regard 
to  what  comes  under  the  head  of  the  positive  sciences — have  never 
ceased  to  converge  towards  a  synthesis  which  explains  all  the  pheno- 
mena of  nature  by  inherent  causes,  and  refers  them  to  a  few  laws  that 
are  becoming  more  and  more  general. 

Astronomy,  for  instance,  has  long  since  taught  us,  by  its  nebular 
hypothesis,  that  the  heavenly  bodies  must  have  been  formed  from 
primitive  cosmic  matter  by  the  simple  effect  of  an  initial  impulse,  and 
without  the  ulterior  intervention  of  any  external  agent  whatever. 
To  the  law  of  gravitation,  which  thus  suffices  to  explain  the  develop- 
ment of  our  solar  system,  the  physical  sciences  have  added  the  no  less 
fruitful  hypothesis  of  the  persistence  of  force,  or  rather  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy.2     Chemistry  has  established  the  identity  of  the 

1.  H.  Taine,  Histoire  de  la  Litterature  Anglaise.     t.  iv. ,  p.  283. 

2.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  does  not  appear  to  allow  that  there  is  any  real  difference 
between  "force"  and  "energy,"  as  many  scientists  suppose,  though,  as  he  says, 
"To  our  perceptions  this  second  kind  of  force  differs  from  the  first  kind  as  being 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  37 

inorganic  elements  that  enter  into  the  composition,  not  only  of  all 
bodies  belonging  to  this  planet,  but  also  of  all  those  with  which  the 
space-traversing  power  of  the  spectroscope  makes  us  acquainted; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  enabled  us  to  foresee  the  possibility  of 
reducing  these  elements  themselves  to  a  single  substance.  Morphology 
has  shown  the  prevalence  of  unity  of  structure  among  all  living  beings, 
from  the  cell  in  a  free  condition  up  to  the  most  complicated  organism 
in  the  scale  of  life,  progress  being  measured,  to  a  certain  extent,  by 
diversity  and  complication  of  organic  function.  Biology,  moreover, 
has  compared  the  physiological  changes  which  take  place  in  the  nerve- 
centres  of  all  the  creatures  possessed  of  a  brain,  either  for  the  trans- 
lation of  thought  into  action  or  in  its  production  by  external  agency. 

Natural  history,  again,  after  having  destroyed  the  artificial  barriers 
raised  between  the  various  species,  has  revealed,  at  least  among  the 
superior  animals,  the  germ  or  outline  of  faculties  hitherto  thought  to 
be  the  exclusive  monopoly  of  the  human  race ;  whilst,  on  the  other 
hand,  Anthropology  has  traced  the  origin  of  civilization  from  a  state 
of  barbarism  bordering  on  animality.  And,  just  as  Embryology  has 
shown  us  the  gradual  passage  of  the  human  embryo  through  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  inferior  organic  forms,  so  Palaeontology  has  dis- 
covered an  analogous  gradation  in  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  different 
ages  of  the  earth.  Finally,  Geology,  by  attributing  to  our  globe  a 
past  which  is  to  be  measured  by  incalculable  myriads  of  ages,  has 
supplied  to  the  believers  in  the  continuity  of  the  development  of  the 
world  the  material  necessary  for  the  formation  of  systems,  such  that  the 
astonishing  multiplicity  of  the  effects  produced  therein  might  not  be 
out  of  keeping  with  the  unity  of  the  cause  and  of  the  process  giving 
rise  to  them. 

It  was  Mr.  Darwin  who  first  drew  from  these  discoveries  a  scientific 
confirmation  of  the  hypothesis,  already  formulated  by  Lamarck  and 
Goethe,  and  then  resumed  in  England  by  Chambers  in  his  Vestiges  of 
Creation,  of  the  unity  of  origin  among  living  beings.  In  1858,  Darwin 
brought  before  the  Linnean  Society  of  London,  simultaneously  with 
Mr.  Wallace,  the  theory  of  natural  selection,  which  attributes  the 
variation  of  species  to  the  action  of  these  two  general  laws :  the 
universality  of  the  struggle  for  life  assuring  the  survival  of  the  fittest 

not  intrinsic,  but  extrinsic."     He  also  prefers  the  word  "Persistence"  to  "Con- 
servation."    (First  Principles,^.  igo.J — Translator. 


38  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

(that  is  those  best  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  their  environment),  and 
heredity  or  the  power  which  all  living  creatures  possess  of  transmitting 
their  individual  characteristics  by  means  of  generation.  During  the 
following  year  he  published  his  celebrated  work  on  the  origin  of 
species,  in  which  he  places  humanity  itself  within  the  scope  of  the 
development  theory,  in  opposition  to  the  views  of  Mr.  Wallace,  who 
contended  that  it  was  impossible  to  explain,  on  the  principle  of 
natural  selection,  the  existence  of  certain  faculties  proper  to  the 
human  mind,  such  as  the  power  of  generalization  and  abstraction. 

The  funeral  honours  in  which  the  Anglican  clergy  took  part  when 
Mr.  Darwin's  remains  were  interred  in  Westminster  Abbey,  prove  the 
toleration  of  the  Broad  Church  party,  but  not  the  orthodoxy  of  the  illus- 
trious scientist.  In  reality,  as  long  as  the  history  of  the  earth  did  not 
condemn  the  hypothesis  of  sudden  and  distinct  creations,  the  adherents 
of  the  Biblical  tradition  were  able  to  reconcile  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent, by  dint  of  laboured  ingenuity,  the  narrative  of  Genesis  with  the 
revelations  of  Palaeontology.  But  the  theory  which  derived  all  living 
nature,  man  included,  from  one  or  at  least  a  few  rudimentary  organ- 
isms, by  a  sort  of  continuous  development,  and  under  the  influence  of 
inherent  causes,  is  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  the  hypothesis  of  a 
creation  in  several  acts,  or  even  with  a  miraculous  intervention  in  the 
progress  of  life  on  the  globe.  Darwin,  however,  made  no  allusion  to 
this  aspect  of  the  question.1 

Still  in  showing  the  chain  of  natural  phenomena,  by  which  organic 
matter  has  successively  assumed  the  richest  and  most  varied  forms  of 
life,  Darwin  did  not  reach  the  origin  of  life  itself,  and  still  less  the 
origin  of  the  world.  The  alternative  he  laid  down  was  not  between 
creation  and  evolution,  but  between  organic  creation  by  means  of 
evolution  and  that  same  creation  regarded  as  due  to  the  successive  inter- 
vention of  an  external  Power.  Hence  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare 
that  his  doctrine,  so  far  from  excluding  the  existence  of  a  First  Cause, 
furnished  a  more  rational  and  a  more  elevated  conception  of  such  a 
cause,  from  the  mere  fact  that  in  place  of  a  capricious,  arbitrary,  or 
powerless  God,  compelled  to  return  to  his  work  several  times  in  order 
to  bring  it  to  perfection,  it  substituted  a  Supreme  Being,  who,  from 

I.  See  his  letter  to  a  German  student,  which  was  published  in  the  Academy  of 
November  4th,  18S2.  "As  far  as  I  am  concerned,"  he  says,  "I  do  not  believe 
that  any  Revelation  has  been  made." 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  39 

the  first,  gave  to  his  creative  work  the  forces  and  laws  required  to  en- 
sure its  regular  and  progressive  development.1  In  a  not  dissimilar 
manner,  the  new  doctrine  confined  itself  to  displacing  the  old  concep- 
tion of  a  final  cause  and  to  presenting  that  idea  under  conditions 
incomparably  grander  than  the  teleological  combinations  of  Paley  and 
his  followers.  It  doubtless  became  henceforth  inadmissible  to  seek 
finality  in  the  separate  processes  of  nature ;  but  nothing  had  occurred 
to  prevent  its  being  ascribed  to  the  general  end  towards  which  the 
world  might  be  regarded  as  advancing  by  its  own  inherent  forces,  or, 
indeed,  of  placing  it  in  the  law  governing  the  evolution.  In  short, 
Darwin  refrained  from  seeking  the  relation  between  mind  and  matter, 
and  confined  himself  to  establishing  the  truth  that  special  physical 
modifications  correspond  to  certain  modifications  of  the  intellectual 
faculties. 

The  Sensational  Psychology,  again,  having  been  revived  by  the 
Positivist  method,  led  to  analogous  conclusions  in  the  works  of 
Mr.  J.  S.  Mill.  "  The  Positive  mode  of  thought,"  said  the  author 
of  Auguste  Comte  et  le  Positivisme,  "  is  not  necessarily  a  denial  of  the 
supernatural :  it  merely  throws  back  that  question  to  the  origin  of 
all  things.  .  .  .  Positive  Philosophy  maintains  that  within  the 
existing  order  of  the  universe,  or  rather  of  the  part  of  it  known  to  us, 
the  direct  determining  cause  of  every  phenomenon  is  not  supernatural, 
but  natural.  It  is  compatible  with  this  to  believe  that  the  universe 
was  created,  and  even  that  it  is  continuously  governed,  by  an  Intelli- 
gence, provided  we  admit  that  intelligent  Governor  adheres  to  fixed 
laws."2 

In  the  philosophical  system  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  we  arrive  at 
the  point  of  convergence  between  the  current  of  scientific  ideas  which 
I  have  just  analysed,  and  the  Positivist  psychology  of  Stuart  Mill. 
It  is  from  the  former  that  that  philosopher  borrowed  the  materials 
with  which  he  has  constructed  his  synthesis  of  the  universe ;  from  the 
latter  that  he  obtained  his  categories  of  the  Knowable,  which  com- 
prehend all  phenomena  and  their  relations,  and  of  the  Unknowable, 

1.  Origin  of  Species,  6th  Ed.,  p.  269. 

2.  Auguste  Comte  and  Positivism.  London,  1865.  In  his  three  Posthumous 
Essays  on  Religion,  Stuart  Mill  is  still  more  affirmative.  For  instance,  on  page  174 
he  says,  ' '  There  is  a  large  balance  in  favour  of  the  probability  of  creation  by 
intelligence." 


40  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

which  applies  to  Noumena,  to  the  Absolute,  to  being  in  itself,  to  the 
inner  or  essential  nature  of  force,  matter,  and  motion,  of  time  and 
space,  and  even  of  consciousness  itself.  Nor  does  he  stop  here; 
for,  while  on  the  one  hand  he  extends  Darwin's  hypothesis  to  the 
totality  of  phenomena,  in  order  to  explain  the  development  of  organic 
nature,  on  the  other  he  suppresses  the  necessity  of  a  First  Cause  by 
suppressing  all  limit  of  time  to  the  action  of  the  forces  manifested  in 
the  universe.  The  importance  this  doctrine  has  acquired  renders  it 
necessary  that  I  should  pause  to  consider  it  at  some  length. 

In  common  with  Mill  and  Hamilton,  Spencer  shows  that  the  human 
mind  is  powerless  to  free  itself  from  the  limitations  of  time  and  space, 
and  that  consequently  it  can  know  nothing  either  of  substance  or  of 
a  First  Cause.  And  though  a  real  correlation  must  doubtless  be 
admitted  between  the  objects  of  thought  and  the  conceptions  we 
form  of  them,  still  this  agreement  can  never  furnish  us  with  more 
than  symbols  of  the  reality :  that  is  to  say,  images  which  represent  in 
an  imperfect  manner  the  things  for  which  they  stand.  It  is,  therefore, 
within  the  phenomenal  and  the  relative  that  a  scientific  explanation 
of  the  universe  is  to  be  sought.1 

Now,  some  ultimate  principle  is  necessary  upon  which  to  hang  the 
whole  chain  of  scientific  reasoning.  This  starting  point,  at  once  logical 
and  scientific,  is  found  in  the  persistence  of  force,  with  its  corollaries 
that  matter  is  indestructible  and  motion  continuous.  Setting  out 
from  this  principle,  Spencer  reaches  the  conclusion  that  all  the  ma- 
terial elements  of  our  universe  must  have  existed  at  some  period  or 
other  in  the  form  of  attenuated  matter :  that  is,  in  an  incoherent, 
indeterminate,  and  homogeneous  state.  In  virtue  of  the  action  and 
re-action  which  the  atoms  of  this  matter  exerted  upon  each  other, 
they  at  last  began  to  move  around  certain  centres  of  gravity,  in  the 
form  of  nebula?  possessed  of  a  gyratory  motion.  But  this  was  only 
the  first  stage  in  the  evolutionary  process.  The  three  laws  which 
Spencer  deduces  from  the  persistence  of  force — the  instability  of  the 
homogeneous,  the  multiplication  of  effects,  and  segregation  or  the  law 
of  co-ordination — permit  him  to  define  the  entire  process  of  evolution 
as  "  An  integration  of  matter  and  concomitant  dissipation  of  motion, 

I.  Mr.  Spencer's  First  Principles  appeared  in  1862.  It  may  be  stated  that  all 
his  earlier  productions  were  but  preliminary  to  this  volume,  just  as  his  subsequent 
works  form  its  systematic  development. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  41 

during  which  the  matter  passes  from  an  indefinite,  incoherent  homo- 
geneity to  a  definite,  coherent  heterogeneity,  and  during  which  the 
retained  motion  undergoes  a  parallel  transformation."1 

Evolution,  however,  reaches  a  fatal  term  in  equilibrium  or  the  con- 
dition of  equality  between  the  forces  which  act  upon  the  aggregate 
from  without  and  the  force  which  this  opposes  to  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  equilibrium  can  be  definitive,  since  every  aggregate  is  exposed 
to  the  action  of  external  forces  in  a  universe  of  ceaseless  activity,  and 
one  in  which  all  the  motion  given  off  by  compounds  in  the  process  of 
evolution  must  be  absorbed  by  neighbouring  bodies  and  exercise 
upon  them  a  disintegrating  action.  Every  part  of  the  universe  must, 
therefore,  pass  through  a  period  of  integration,  and  then  one  of  disin- 
tegration, analogous  to  the  alternate  phases  of  creation  and  dissolution 
which  fill  eternity,  in  the  Brahminic  Pantheism,  and  are  dependent 
upon  the  waking  and  sleeping  states  of  Brahma.  "  Apparently,"  says 
Spencer,2  "  the  universally  co-existent  forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion 
produce  now  an  immeasurable  period,  during  which  the 
attractive  forces  predominating  cause  universal  concentration,  and 
then  an  immeasurable  period,  during  which  the  repulsive  forces  pre- 
dominating cause  universal  diffusion — alternate  eras  of  evolution  and 
dissolution." 

This  eternal  rhythm  is  not,  however,  restricted  to  cosmical  pheno- 
mena ;  it  measures  the  existence  of  ephemeral  things  as  well  as  the 
duration  of  a  nebula.  The  only  difference  in  the  two  cases  consists 
in  the  length  of  the  cycle,  which  is  proportionate  to  the  aggregates  it 
comprises.  Spencer  seeks  to  demonstrate  how  this  double  process  of 
evolution  and  dissolution  suffices  to  explain,  not  only  the  production 
of  inorganic  phenomena,  but  also  the  hierarchy  of  organic  beings  : 
the  appearance  of  the  cell;  the  variation  of  species;  the  transition 
from  vegetable  to  conscious,  rational  and  moral  life ;  the  formation  of 
society;  the  vicissitudes  of  history;  and  finally  all  the  results  of  social 
and  intellectual  activity.  The  fluctuations  of  the  Exchange  are  thus 
subject  to  the  same  law  as  the  passage  of  a  comet;  while  the  victories 
of  Alexander  and  the  works  of  Shakespeare  are  reducible  to  the  same 
factors  as  the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  the  spots  on  the  sun.  Human 
society,  by  dint  of  modification  and  specialization,  will  thus  attain  to  a 

1.  First  Principles.     4th  Edition,  page  396. 

2.  First  Principles,  p.  537. 


42  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

state  of  equilibrium  which  will  be  "  the  establishment  of  the  greatest 
perfection  and  the  most  complete  happiness."1  This  Millenium, 
however,  will  be  only  one  of  the  last  steps  towards  universal  dis- 
solution. The  last  term  of  evolution  is  immobility  or  equilibrium ; 
then  comes  dissolution—  the  doom  of  the  species  as  well  as  the  indi- 
vidual, and  indeed  of  all  which  is  only  a  compound  of  matter  and 
motion  :  Pidvis  es,  in  fiidverem  reverteris  ! 

Still  it  would  not  be  correct  to  conclude  from  this  that  Spencer  sees 
in  mere  matter  and  motion  the  last  word  of  philosophy.  On  the 
contrary,  he  rejects  Materialism  with  perhaps  even  greater  emphasis 
than  Spiritualism.  It  would  be  easier,  he  says,  to  transform  what  we 
call  matter  into  what  is  regarded  as  spirit  than  to  carry  out  the  opposite 
process,  which  is  absolutely  impossible.  But  no  interpretation  can 
enable  us  to  advance  beyond  our  symbols.  In  his  opinion,  indeed, 
matter  and  motion,  to  which  he  reduces  all  things,  are  only  manifesta- 
tions of  the  force  which  reveals  itself  in  consciousness,  and  this  force 
itself  is  only  to  be  regarded  as  "  a  certain  effect  of  the  Unconditioned 
Cause,  as  the  relative  reality  indicating  to  us  an  Absolute  Reality,  by 
which  it  is  immediately  produced."2 

This  Unconditioned  and  Absolute  Reality,  whose  existence  Spencer 
demonstrates  by  the  same  argument  which  serves  to  establish  the 
relatitivity  of  our  knowledge,  thus  becomes  the  ultimate  goal  at  which 
all  science  ends.  "Though  the  Absolute  cannot  in  any  manner  be 
known,  in  the  strict  sense  of  knowing,  yet  we  find  that  its  positive 
existence  is  a  necessary  datum  of  consciousness ;  that  so  long  as  con- 
sciousness continues,  we  cannot  for  an  instance  rid  it  of  this  datum ; 
and  that  thus  the  belief  which  this  datum  constitutes  has  a  higher 
warrant  than  any  other  whatever."3 

Now  it  turns  out,  according  to  our  philosopher,  that  the  fundamental 
idea  of  religion  equally  consists  in  the  affirmation  of  this  Absolute  and 
incomprehensible  Power,  which  is  without  limits  in  either  time  or  space, 
and  of  which  the  Universe  is  but  the  manifestation  : — "  Not  only  is 
the  omnipresence  of  something  which  passes  comprehension,  that  m  :st 
abstract  belief  which  is  common  to  all  religions,  which  becomes  the 
more  distinct  in  proportion  as  they  develop,  and  which  remains  after 

1.  First  Principles,  p.  517. 

2.  First  Principles,  p.  170. 

3.  First  Principles,  p.  98. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF  THEISM.  43 

their  discordant  elements  have  been  mutually  cancelled ;  but  it  is  that 
belief  which  the  most  unsparing  criticism  of  each  leaves  unquestionable 
— or  rather  makes  ever  clearer."1  It  is  therefore  "in  this  deepest, 
widest,  and  most  certain  of  all  facts,"  that  the  ultimate  reconciliation  of 
science  and  religion  may  and  should  be  found.  So  long  as  religion 
is  content  to  remain  within  the  sphere  of  the  Unknowable,  Spencer 
sees  in  it  the  expression  of  a  "  supreme  verity,"  and  he  believes  that 
in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  it  will  prevent  men  "  from  being  wholly 
absorbed  in  the  relative  or  immediate."2 

He  goes  so  far,  indeed,  as  to  admit  that  whilst  purifying  themselves 
more  and  more  through  the  influence  of  science,  the  symbolic  con- 
ceptions of  the  Absolute  will  continue  indefinitely  to  occupy  the  human 
consciousness  and  inspire  religion, — "very  likely  there  will  ever  remain 
a  need  to  give  shape  to  that  indefinite  sense  of  an  Ultimate  Existence, 
which  forms  the  basis  of  our  intelligence."3  It  will  simply  have  to  be 
remembered  that  every  notion  thus  framed  is  "  merely  a  symbol, 
utterly  without  resemblance  to  that  for  which  it  stands."3 

Now,  although  Spencer  explicitly  rejects  Pantheism  equally  with 
Theism  and  Atheism,  his  "indeterminate"  conception  of  an  "Absolute 
Reality,"  such  that  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  are  but  its  manifestation 
or  veil,  ends  none  the  less,  however  little  we  may  translate  it  into 
metaphysical  terms,  in  a  Pantheistic  conception  of  the  universe.  It 
is  true  he  drops  the  name  of  God  and  substitutes  for  it  the  term 
Unknowable,  which  affords  him  the  double  advantage  of  not  being 
compromised  by  metaphysical  associations  and  of  constantly  reminding 
him  of  the  incomprehensible  character  of  the  Supreme  Reality.  But 
in  rigidly  refusing  to  define  this  Unknowable  he  treats  it  as  Being  and 
as  Pozuer;  he  ascribes  to  it  immanence,  unity,  omnipresence,  and 
unlimited  persistence  in  time  and  space ;  he  assigns  to  it  the  laws  of 

1.  First  Principles,  p.  45. 

2.  First  Principles,  p.  100. 

3.  First  Principles,  p.  1 13.  These  concessions  are  unpalatable  to  a  number  of 
Continental  Evolutionists,  who  have  condemned  them  as  the  result  of  the  influence 
unconsciously  exercised  upon  Mr.  Spencer's  mind  by  his  Protestant  surroundings. 
Without  staying  to  discuss  the  force  of  this  argument,  we  may  state  that  it 
would  be  easy  to  turn  it  against  these  critics  themselves,  by  remarking  that  the  rea- 
son why  they  abjure  the  religious  sentiment  with  so  much  bitterness,  even  within 
its  own  province,  is  because  they  are  influenced  by  a  re-action  from  the  prejudices 
which  prevail  in  their  Catholic  surrounding,  or  which  they  may  have  long  retained 
from  early  education. 


44  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

nature  as  modes  of  action ;  and,  finally,  with  respect  to  both  external 
and  internal  phenomena,  he  regards  it  as  sustaining  the  relation  of 
substance  to  manifestation,  and  even  of  cause  to  effect.  If,  there- 
fore, Spencer  deviates  from  pure  and  simple  Pantheism,  it  is  merely 
in  so  far  as  this  confounds  God  with  the  universe,  while  our  philoso- 
pher sees  in  the  Unknowable  not  only  the  substance  of  the  world  and 
the  immanent  cause  of  all  its  phenomena,  but,  over  and  above  this, 
a  transcendent  Power  which  surpasses  all  definition. 

In  this  respect,  indeed,  he  is  more  of  a  Theist  than  of  a  Pantheist 
even,  and  it  need  be  no  matter  of  astonishment  that  certain  of  his 
disciples  have  based  upon  his  doctrine  a  genuine  development  of 
mysticism.  Speaking  of  the  religious  bearing  of  his  philosophy,  he 
says  :  "  In  the  estimate  it  implies  of  the  Ultimate  Cause,  it  does  not 
fall  short  of  the  alternative  position,  but  exceeds  it.  Those  who 
espouse  this  alternative  position,  make  the  erroneous  assumption  that 
the  choice  is  between  personality  and  something  lower  than  person- 
ality ;  whereas  the  choice  is  rather  between  personality  and  something 
higher.  Is  it  not  just  possible  that  there  is  a  mode  of  being  as  much 
transcending  Intelligence  and  Will,  as  these  transcend  mechanical 
motion  ?  It  is  true  that  we  are  totally  unable  to  conceive  any  such 
higher  mode  of  being.  But  this  is  not  a  reason  for  questioning  its 
existence ;  it  is  rather  the  reverse.  Have  we  not  seen  how  utterly  in- 
competent our  minds  are  to  form  even  an  approach  to  a  conception 
of  that  which  underlies  all  phenomena  ?  Is  it  not  proved  that  this 
incompetency  is  the  incompetency  of  the  Conditioned  to  grasp  the 
Unconditioned  ?  Does  it  not  follow  that  the  Ultimate  Cause  cannot 
in  any  respect  be  conceived  by  us  because  it  is  in  every  respect  greater 
than  can  be  conceived  ?  "J 

Still  whatever  may  be  the  value  of  these  declarations,  the  sincerity 
of  which  no  one  can  doubt,  Mr.  Spencer's  views  were  too  much 
opposed  to  the  current  theological  ideas,  as  regards  both  natural  and 
Revealed  religion,  not  to  raise  a  violent  storm  among  theologians, 
while  they  at  the  same  time  led  to  exaggerated  hopes  with  the  enemies 
of  every  religious  idea.  In  vain  did  these  views  present  a  new  sphere 
for  the  religious  sentiment  by  setting  forth  the  mystery  of  the  Un- 
knowable, the  greatness  of  its  manifestations,  the  inflexible  action  of  its 

I.  First  Principles,  p.  109. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  45 

laws  and  the  eternal  rhythm  of  the  forces  revealing  its  power.  They 
none  the  less  replaced  the  personal  and  conscious  God  of  the  tra- 
ditional theology  by  a  Being  deaf,  blind,  and  indifferent  to  human 
misery,  or  at  least  so  far  removed  from  man  that  no  direct  relation 
could  any  longer  be  conceived  to  exist  between  the  two  terms  of  the 
religious  equation ;  and  thus  there  seemed  to  disappear  that  sentiment 
of  a  direct  communication  between  the  soul  and  its  Author,  which 
forms  not  only  the  central  principle  of  Protestanism,  but  also  the 
essential  basis  of  Theism.  As  Mr.  Gladstone  once  asked  in  an 
academical  address  :  does  not  Mr.  Spencer's  scheme  of  reconciliation 
between  religion  and  science  resemble  the  proposal  of  a  man  who 
wishing  to  free  himself  from  an  intruder,  should  say,  "  My  house  has 
two  sides  to  it  and  we  will  share  them — please  to  take  the  outside  ?  " 

No  one  certainly  can  deny  that  Mr.  Spencer's  doctrine  leaves  room 
for  the  two  great  and  indispensible  factors  of  all  religion  :  the  belief 
in  a  mysterious  Power  and  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  that  Power. 
But  if  it  maintains  dependence,  does  it  not  suppress  obligation ;  does 
it  not;  indeed,  destroy  the  idea  of  duty,  which  has  become  an  element 
henceforth  inseparable  from  the  religious  sentiment?  Besides,  what  will 
remain  not  merely  of  the  soul,  if  the  very  personality  of  the  individual 
be  only  an  ephemeral  ebb  and  flow  of  psychological  states ;  but  even 
of  consciousness  itself  if  this  be  nothing  more  than  motion  trans- 
muted by  its  environment  and  by  hereditary  tendencies  ? x 

Mr.  Spencer's  speculations  seem  to  have  been  met  at  first  by  a 
conspiracy  of  silence.  In  1864,  an  able  writer,  M.  Aug.  Laugel,  in 
giving  an  analysis  of  the  works  of  the  thinker  whom  he  called  "  the 
last  of  the  English  metaphysicians,"  wrote  thus  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes : — "In  the  midst  of  universal  indifference,  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  has  remained  persistently  attached  to  the  study  of  philosophy. 

1.  It  may  be  stated  here  that  Mr.  Spencer,  while  holding  that  force  existing  as 
motion,  light,  or  heat,  is  transmutable  into  modes  of  consciousness,  and  that  per- 
sonality, though  "  a  fact  beyond  all  others  the  most  certain,  is  yet  a  thing  which 
cannot  be  truly  known  at  all,"l  says  : — "  How  can  the  sceptic  who  has  decomposed 
his  consciousness  into  impressions  and  ideas  explain  the  fact  that  he  considers  them 
as  his  impressions  and  ideas?  Or  once  more,  if,  as  he  must,  he  admits  that  he  has 
an  impression  of  his  personal  existence,  what  warrant  can  he  show  for  rejecting 
this  impression  as  unreal  while  he  accepts  all  his  other  impressions  as  real  ?  Unless 
he  can  give  satisfactory  answers  to  these  queries,  which  he  cannot,  he  must  abandon 
his  conclusions,  and  must  admit  the  reality  of  the  individual  mind. "2  (1)  First 
Principles,  p.  65.     (2)  Ibid,  p.  64.  —  Translator. 


46  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF    EVOLUTION 

It  has  doubtless  required  from  him  heroic  courage  and  a  rare  spirit  of 
independence  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  severe  studies  which  can 
merely  secure  for  him  a  few  isolated  followers.  With  the  intellectual 
power,  the  fertility  of  resource,  and  the  almost  encyclopaedic  variety  of 
knowledge  with  which  his  works  abound,  Mr.  Spencer,  if  he  had  con- 
sented to  walk  in  the  beaten  track,  would  have  certainly  obtained  all 
those  marks  of  public  favour  which  English  society  delights  to  shower 
upon  those  who  serve  it  as  it  wishes  to  be  served.  He  has  chosen, 
however,  to  condemn  himself  to  poverty,  and,  what  is  still  harder  to 
bear,  obscurity."1 

There  was  never,  perhaps,  a  prediction  more  fully  based  upon 
probabilities,  never  one  more  completely  belied  by  events.  Mr. 
Spencer's  doctrine  was  not  of  a  kind  that  could  long  remain  hidden 
under  a  bushel,  and  whatever  fears  it  might  inspire  in  its  adversaries, 
they  were  compelled  to  take  account  of  it.  Its  early  experiences  were 
stormy.  The  controversy  reached  its  height  in  1874,  when  Professor 
Huxley  published  his  Lay  Sermons,  in  which  he  strongly  contended 
for  the  rights  of  reason,  and  when  Dr.  Tyndall  delivered  his  celebrated 
Belfast  address  as  President  of  the  British  Association.  The  latter, 
while  fully  recognizing  with  Mr.  Spencer  the  independence  of  the 
religious  sentiment  in  the  sphere  of  the  Unknowable,  advanced  a 
claim  for  the  ancient  doctrine  of  atoms,  and  denied  the  right  of 
theologians  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  universe.  This  was  more 
than  enough  to  call  down  all  the  thunders  of  English  orthodoxy  upon 
the  head  of  the  speaker,  and  there  were  fanatics  who  went  so  far  as 
to  threaten  him  with  the  old  and  unrepealed  statutes  against  the 
detractors  of  the  Divinity.  Writing  the  following  year,  he  said  he 
had  often  been  compelled  to  remark  with  sadness  that  the  way  in 
which  men  are  influenced  by  what  they  call  their  religion,  forms  a 
striking  display  of  that  corrupt  nature  which  they  assert  religion  is 
specially  intended  to  modify  or  restrain. 

The  very  violence  of  these  attacks  could  but  favour  the  spread  of 
the  doctrine  they  were  intended  to  stifle.  It  is  very  interesting  to 
follow  the  course  of  the  controversy  in  the  Reviews  of  the  day.  For 
several  years  the  conflict  raged.  Mr.  Spencer  himself  took  part  in  it 
by  means  of  numerous  articles,  while  at  the  same  time  he  continued 

1.  Aug.  Laugel,  Les  etudes  philosophiques  en  Angleterre  {Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes,  of  the  15th  February,  1864). 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  47 

the  publication  of  his  works.  To-day  a  great  calm  prevails  on  the 
subject,  at  least  in  the  upper  regions  of  English  thought.  Not  only 
has  the  doctrine  of  evolution  obtained  a  place  in  the  sunshine  of 
British  respectability,  but  it  is  tending  more  and  more,  under  one 
form  or  another,  to  permeate  the  philosophy  and  even  the  religion  of 
the  country. 

Above  and  beyond  its  immediate  disciples,  it  has  secured  a  large 
measure  of  support  in  two  groups  which  are  daily  becoming  more 
numerous  in  the  world  of  letters  :  practical  men  who  look  upon  the 
time  devoted  to  metaphysical  or  religious  question  as  so  much  loss 
to  the  service  of  humanity,  and  the  indifferent,  who,  without  attacking 
any  form  of  religion,  are  none  the  less  desirous  of  being  as  little 
occupied  with  it  as  possible,  and  who  are  happy  to  meet  with  a  philo- 
sophy which  justifies  their  indifference.  It  was  in  relation  to  the 
attitude  of  these  two  classes  that  the  word  Agnosticism  was  invented 
some  fifteen  years  ago,  which,  as  its  etymology  shows,  stands  for  the 
absence  of  knowledge.  And  this  Agnostic  or  know-nothing  way  of 
treating  religious  questions  has  even  become  the  fashion  in  certain 
sections  of  society,  and  many  a  one,  who  would  be  embarrassed  to 
explain  why  he  does  so,  calls  himself  an  Agnostic  to-day  just  as  he 
might  have  called  himself  a  "Freethinker"  two  centuries  ago,  or  a 
Puseyite  a  generation  or  two  since. 

This  state  of  things,  which,  however  little  it  may  extend  itself, 
would  seem  destined  to  lead  the  more  educated  classes  to  a  new 
interregnum  of  positive  faith,  induced  Professor  Seeley,  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  to  publish  a 
work  in  1882  in  which  he  attempted  to  describe  the  bearing  and 
influence  of  the  religious  sentiment  among  his  fellow-countrymen. 
According  to  this  work,  which  produced  a  considerable  sensation,1  if 
we  take  the  three  elements  severally  able  to  furnish  a  religious  ideal : 
the  love  of  the  true,  or  Science,  the  perception  of  the  beautiful,  or 
Art,  the  idea  of  duty,  or  Morals,  it  is  only  the  third  which  finds  satis- 
faction in  Christianity  to-day.  Science — that  is  to  say  the  religion  of 
the  Absolute,  or  of  Law,  which  even  when  it  proclaims  itself  Atheistical 
admits  the  existence  of  a  God  whom  it  names  the  Unknowable,  the 
Cosmos,  or  the  Universal  Order — has  ceased,  in  effect,  to  concede  to 

1.  Natural  Religion,  by  the  author  of  Ecce  Homo.  London  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 
1882. 


48  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

that  mysterious  Reality  the  attributes  of  personality,  foreknowledge, 
goodness  and  justice,  or  to  lend  it  an  existence  distinct  from  the 
world,  and  recognise  in  it  the  nature  of  a  First  Cause.  In  the  same 
way  Art,  that  is  the  religion  of  Nature,  revolts  more  and  more  against 
Christianity  whose  moral  rigidity  and  aesthetic  indifference  it  de- 
nounces. 

A  large  number  of  scientists  confine  themselves  to  the  criticism  of 
the  dominant  theology,  and  abstain  from  making  any  affirmation  as 
to  the  future  of  religion.  There  are  some  even  who  discount  the  fall 
of  every  system  of  faith.1  But  there  also  exists  an  important  section 
who,  "  while  it  rejects  Christianity,  proclaims  religion  to  be  the  highest 
of  all  things,  and  looks  forward  to  a  great  renewal  of  its  influence." 
This  party,  however,  is  divided  as  to  the  form  of  religion  which  is  to 
be  substituted  for  Christianity.  Some  believe  that  humanity  is  destined 
to  become  the  object  of  worship  ;  others,  again,  consider  that  the  hour 
of  Pantheism  has  struck,  and  "the  time  when  the  supernatural  tyrant 
of  the  universe  must  give  way  to  the  Universe  itself."  Then,  again, 
there  are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  form  this  Pantheism  will 
assume,  and  "  often  it  may  be  observed  that  the  purer,  sweeter  worship 
which  is  promised  to  us  is  pictured  as  a  revival  of  Greek  Paganism."2 

These  aspirations  are  by  no  means  irreligious.  The  only  real 
irreligion,  and  it  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  Church  as  well  as  beyond  its 
pale,  is,  on  the  one  hand,  the  presumption  characteristic  of  men  too 
infatuated  with  their  own  importance  to  subordinate  their  personality 
to  the  natural  order  of  things ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  attitude 
of  those  who  are  too  absorbed  in  the  trivialities  of  life  to  rise  to  the 
conception  of  principles  and  laws.  Now  such  is  not  the  case  either 
with  science  or  art,  which,  in  common  with  Christian  morality,  con- 
demn this  double  tendency  in  the  name  of  their  respective  ideals. 
Let  these  three  elements  be  combined  and  we  shall  possess,  it  is  con- 
tended, a  system  of  religion  that  will  restore  peace  and  spiritual  union 
to  modern  society,  which  is  now  threatened  with  anarchy.  "  The 
natural  religion  of  which  we  are  in  search,"  says  the  author,  "  will  in- 

i.  The  author  of  Natural  Religion  remarks  (Preface  to  the  2nd  Edition)  that 
"it  is  not  the  greatest  scientific  authorities  that  are  so  confident  in  negation,  but 
rather  the  inferior  men  who  echo  their  opinions  and  who  live  themselves  in  the 
atmosphere,  not  of  science,  but  of  party  controversy. " 

2.   Of.  Cit.,  2nd  Edition,  p.  73. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  49 

elude  a  religion  of  humanity  as  well  as  a  religion  of  material  things. 
It  will  retain  at  least  the  kernel  (of  Christianity),  if  it  rejects  the 
shell  ....  But  along  with  this  transfigured  Christianity,  only 
in  a  subordinate  rank,  it  will  include  the  higher  Paganism,  or  in  other 
words  the  purified  worship  of  natural  forms."  And  this  is  not  all. 
It  will  preserve  the  worship  of  the  principle  of  unity,  whether  the 
object  of  this  worship  be  called  Nature  or  God. 

This  system,  which  the  author  names  the  religion  of  culture,  in  the 
German  sense  of  the  word,  will  possess  its  Church  and  its  clergy. 
This  church  will  consist  of  the  vast  communion  of  those  who  are  in- 
spired by  the  ideals  of  the  culture  and  civilization  of  the  age,  and  its 
clergy,  as  educators  of  the  people,  will  be  subject  to  no  restrictions  of 
creed,  but  merely  required  to  fulfil  the  moral  and  intellectual  condi- 
tions suited  to  their  office.  Will  the  existing  churches  be  able  to 
adapt  themselves  to  this  transformation,  or  will  the  world  be  compelled 
to  create  some  new  organism  as  the  vehicle  of  these  new  aspirations  ? 
There  are  few  signs,  except  in  England  and  America,  of  any  such 
power  on  the  part  of  Christianity.  And  even  in  these  two  nations,  if 
the  Church  is  to  become  the  spiritual  citadel  of  civilization,  it  must 
hasten  to  open  its  doors  to  new  ideas  and  to  renounce  every  exclusive 
dogma. 

Professor  Seeley  asserts1  that  he  has  placed  himself  in  his  work  at  the 
standpoint  occupied  by  the  extreme  school.  If,  however,  we  examine 
the  situation  from  a  more  general  point  of  view,  it  is  seen  that  a  great 
number  of  superior  men  refuse  to  admit  the  impossibility  of  reconcil- 
ing the  principles  of  spiritual  religion  with  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 

There  are  some  who,  like  the  eminent  physiologist,  Dr.  W.  B. 
Carpenter,  himself  one  of  the  first  to  accept,  and  almost  a  precursor 
of  evolution,  earnestly  declare,  as  the  result  of  their  researches,  that 
mind  and  will  form  the  very  basis  of  evolution.2 

1.  Preface  to  second  edition. 

2.  "Science  points  to  the  origination  of  all  power  in  mind."  (On  Mind  and 
Will  in  Nature,  in  the  Contei7iporary  Review,  1872.)  During  the  same  year,  Dr. 
Carpenter  closed  his  Presidential  Address  at  the  Brighton  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  in  the  following  words:  "For  while  the  deep-seated  instincts  of 
humanity  and  the  profound  researches  of  philosophy  alike  point  to  mind  as  the  one 
and  only  source  of  Power,  it  is  the  highest  prerogative  of  science  to  demonstrate 
the  unity  of  the  Power  which  is  operating  through  the  limitless  extent  and  variety 
of  the  universe,  and  to  trace  its  continuity  through  the  vast  series  of  ages  that  have 
been  occupied  in  its  evolution." — See  also  on  the  subject,  Lecky,  History  of 
Rationalism  in  Europe,  I.  Vol.,  p.  286. 

E 


50  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

Others  again — such  as  Mr.  W.  Graham,  in  his  remarkable  work, 
The  Creed  of  Science  (London,  1881),  which  is  written  with  the  utmost 
impartiality  and  displays  the  highest  powers  of  reasoning — seek  to 
demonstrate  that  the  philosophy  of  evolution  possesses  as  its  logical 
corollary,  not  a  foreseen  and  desired  aim,  but  a  purpose  progressively 
pursued  by  the  Unknowable  Power  of  Herbert  Spencer.  Mr.  Graham 
thinks,  moreover,  that  this  purpose  must  be  rational,  that  is  to  say, 
in  conformity  with  what  we  regard  as  the  rational  order  of  things. 
"  Otherwise,"  says  he,  "  we  cannot  conceive  any  explanation  of  the 
past  course  of  evolution,  save  chance,  and  we  can  have  no  guarantee 
that  the  future  course  of  development  will  be  controlled  otherwise 
than  by  chance." 

There  are  those,  too,  who  lay  an  emphasis  on  the  moral  bearing  of 
this  purpose,  and,  in  imitation  of  Matthew  Arnold,  conceive  of  the 
action  of  the  Unknowable  as  a  stream  of  tendency  which  makes  for 
the  Good  and  the  Beautiful.  And,  further,  there  are  some  like 
Professors  Tait  and  Balfour  Stewart  who,  returning  by  means  of  modern 
science  to  the  speculations  of  Neo-Platonism,  affirm  that  it  is  imposs- 
ible to  admit  the  principle  of  continuity  in  the  development  of  the 
universe,  unless  we  assume  the  existence  of  an  invisible  universe,  of 
which  the  visible  order  of  things  is  in  some  sort  a  projection  or 
sensible  condensation.1 

But  I  must  stop  here.  For  if  I  undertook  to  enumerate  all  the 
attempts  which  have  been  made  to  reconcile  the  philosophy  of  evolu- 
tion with  the  principles  of  Theism,  I  should  never  finish  my  task. 
It  will  suffice  for  me  to  show  how,  according  to  the  reasoning  of  an 
ardent  champion  of  evolution,  Mr.  J.  Sully,  the  theory  in  question 
can  be  legitimately  held  in  connection  with  the  most  diverse  meta- 
physical systems  of  thought,  and  even  with  the  old  doctrines  of 
Natural  Religion.  In  an  article  of  a  very  exhaustive  kind,  which  was 
published  in  1878,  in  the  eighth  vol.  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 

1.  The  Unseat  Universe,  the  book  in  which  the  views  of  Professors  Tait  and 
Balfour  Stewart  are  expounded,  though  treating  of  matters  of  an  abstract  nature  and 
addressing  itself  exclusively  to  cultivated  minds  and  indeed  to  scientists,  has  passed 
through  a  tenth  edition  in  England  and  has  hardly  yet  ceased  to  be  a  subject  of  con- 
troversy. Having  been  recently  translated  into  French,  however,  and  published  by 
the  firm  of  Germer-Bailliere  in  their  "  Bibliotheque  Philosophique,"  it  has  scarcely 
obtained  an  honourable  mention  in  the  special  press  of  the  country.  This  circum- 
stance is  characteristic  of  the  difference  in  intellectual  tendencies  which  prevails 
among  the  two  peoples. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF  THEISM.  51 

by  Professor  Huxley  and  Mr.  Sully,  the  latter  denned  the  theory  of 
evolution  as  "the  highest  generalization  respecting  the  order  of 
phenomena  in  time,"  and,  being  such  and  such  only,  he  considers  it 
powerless  to  furnish  a  scientific  explanation  of  the  cause,  purpose,  or 
nature,  either  of  the  substance  which  furnishes  the  materials  evolved, 
or  of  the  process  itself.1  Thus  the  Positivist  who  desires  to  adhere 
to  the  actual  data  of  science  may  accept  evolution,  maintaining,  in 
doing  so,  that  the  limitations  of  the  human  mind  will  for  ever  restrict 
man  to  the  knowledge  of  phenomena.  The  empirical  idealist,  on  the 
other  hand,  may  regard  the  theory  as  one  that  formulates  "  the  order 
of  sensations,  actual  and  possible,  of  conscious  minds."2  Or,  again, 
evolution  is  in  equal  harmony  with  all  those  philosophical  doctrines 
"  which  regard  the  higher  or  more  complex  forms  of  existence  as 
following  and  depending  on  the  lower  and  simple  forms,  which 
represent  the  course  of  the  world  as  a  gradual  transition  from  the 
indeterminate  to  the  determinate,  from  the  uniform  to  the  varied,  and 
which  assume  the  cause  of  the  process  to  be  immanent  in  the  world 
that  is  thus  transformed." 

It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  briefly  mention,  at  this  stage  of 
our  inquiry,  the  principal  philosophical  systems  which,  according. to 
the  learned  contributor  to  the  Encyclopedia,  may  be  legitimately 
grafted  upon  the  theory  of  evolution.  This  theory,  he  remarks,  at- 
tributes objective  existence  to  nothing  beyond  motion  and  force. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  attests 
that,  beneath  all  the  variations  of  phenomena,  there  is  something  real 
that  exists  as  the  substance  of  these  manifestations.  What  is  the 
nature  of  this  reality  ?  Here  science  gives  place  to  the  interpretations 
of  philosophy,  which  may  be  classified  in  the  following  manner  : — 

(1)  Dualistic  solutions.  Here  evolution  progresses  simultaneously 
in  the  physical  and  spiritual  orders,  the    coincidence  between  the 

I.  Professor  Huxley  wrote  the  strictly  biological  and  Mr.  Sully  the  general  and 
philosophical  part  of  the  article. —  Translator. 

■  2.  It  is  notorious  that  for  empirical  idealism,  all  the  phenomena  to  which  we 
attribute  an  objective  existence,  are  only  the  projection  and  the  reflection  of  our 
subjective  sensations.  Mr.  Spencer  maintains  that  if  this  theory  were  true  evolu- 
tion would  be  a  dream.  Mr.  Sully  however  expressly  asserts  that  the  doctrine  may 
be  formulated  in  idealistic  as  well  as  in  realistic  terms.  This  latter  is  »also  the 
opinion  of  Professor  Huxley,  who,  in  his  Life  of  Hume,  insists  upon  the  point  with 
still  greater  emphasis. 


52  THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

two  series  of  phenomena  remaining  unexplained  or  being  attributed 
to  arbitrary  intervention. 

(2)  Monistic  solutions  in  which  mind  is  looked  upon  as  a  property 
or  manifestation  of  matter  (Materialism) ;  where  matter  is  made  the 
outcome  of  mind  (Spiritualism) ;  or  in  the  third  place  when  mind  and 
matter  are  taken  to  be  the  opposite  sides  of  one  and  the  same 
mysterious  reality  (Monism  proper). 

The  field  of  hypotheses  becomes  still  more  extended  when  it  is  a 
question  of  finding  the  cause  of  evolution.     Here  we  meet  with  : 

(a)  The  systems  in  which  a  mechanical  interpretation  predominates 
— that  is  to  say  the  theory  that  all  changes  are  fatally  determined  by 
their  antecedents  (Determinism).  This  conception  is  generally  con- 
nected with  materialistic  views  as  to  the  origin  of  the  universe  and  the 
nature  of  man.  It  is  also  found,  however,  allied  with  doctrines  which 
explain  the  development  of  life  and  consciousness,  either  by  according 
to  the  primordial  monads  certain  elementary  psychical  properties,  or 
by  referring  mind  and  matter  to  a  spiritual  substance  (mind-stuff)  as 
the  ultimate  Reality  behind  the  world.  The  difficulty  of  regarding 
matter  as  the  source  of  conscious  life,  has  equally  led  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  primordial  substance  under  a  quasi-material  form, 
which,  though  inaccessible  to  our  senses,  has  given  rise  to  the  material 
elements  by  a  species  of  condensation. 

(b)  The  systems  in  which  the  teleological  conception  predominates ; 
in  other  words,  those  in  which  the  evolutionary  process  is  supposed  to 
be  directed  by  a  tendency  towards  a  rational  end,  a  tendency  which 
is  known  in  the  schools  by  such  names  as  the  vital  or  plastic  principle, 
cosmic  force  or  Nature  personified.  Following  Aristotle,  some  of  these 
schools  of  thought  admit  that  the  mind  is  the  formative  principle  of 
the  organism.  Others  endow  the  universe  with  a  soul,  and  speak  of 
nature  as  its  visible  body ;  they  thus  obtain  a  spiritual  principle  as  the 
directive  agency  in  the  evolution  of  the  material  world.  When  this 
principle  is  looked  upon  not  only  as  the  creative  cause,  but  also  as  the 
original  source  of  life  and  consciousness,  we  possess  in  it  a  form  of 
Pantheism  which  makes  of  the  world  a  divine  incarnation.  "The 
full  development,"  adds  Mr.  Sully,  "  of  this  way  of  regarding  the 
world  and  its  evolution,  as  the  work  of  a  spiritual  principle  aiming 
towards  an  end,  is  to  be  found  in  certain  doctrines  of  objective 
idealism,  which  resolve  all  material  existence  into  a  mode  of  mental 


AND    THE    CRISIS    OF    THEISM.  53 

existence  :  will  and  thought.  These  theories  simplify  the  conception  of 
evolution  to  the  utmost,  by  the  identification  both  of  the  substantial 
reality  which  enters  into  all  parts  of  the  world-process,  and  of  the 
rationale  of  all  parts  of  the  process  itself.  In  the  systems  now  referred 
to,  the  mechanical  idea  is  wholly  taken  up  into  the  teleological.  Pur- 
pose is  the  highest  law  of  things,  and  it  is  one  purpose  which  manifests 
itself  through  all  stages  of  the  world — evolution  in  the  region  of  inor- 
ganic nature,  of  organic  life,  and  of  human  history. 

(c)  The  systems  which  combine  the  two  preceding  categories  and 
which  are  generally  based  upon  a  monistic  ontology.  They  present 
themselves,  either  as  universalistic  conceptions,  when  they  see  in  evo- 
lution a  double  manifestation  of  the  activity  of  a  single  substance 
(the  Divine  reason  or  principle  of  necessity),  or  as  individualistic  con- 
ceptions when  they  attribute  this  double  manifestation  to  the  increas- 
ing activity  of  an  indeterminate  number  of  elements  endowed  with 
motion  and  sensibility. 

Although  the  theory  of  evolution  claims  to  explain,  by  the  action  of 
the  senses,  the  formation  in  the  human  mind  of  such  ideas  as  time 
and  space,  it  does  not  condemn  the  doctrine  which  attributes  these 
conceptions  to  a  transcendental  origin.  "  It  may  however  be  main- 
tained," remarks  Mr.  Sully,  "  that  the  idea  is  not  even  suggested  by 
experience ;  if  so,  it  would  follow  from  the  evolution  theory  that  its 
present  persistence  represents  a  permanent  mental  disposition  to  think 
in  a  particular  way.  Even  then  the  question  would  remain  open, 
whether  the  permanent  disposition  were  an  illusory  or  trustworthy 
tendency,  and  in  deciding  this  point  the  doctrine  of  evolution  appears 
to  offer  us  no  assistance."1 

We  may  mention  incidentally  that  Mr.  Sully  admits  the  justice  of 
the  reproach  so  often  urged  against  the  evolution  philosophy,  that  it 
preaches  a  morality  destitute  of  a  due  sanction  : — "Among  other  re- 
sults this  doctrine  may  be  said  to  give  new  form  to  the  determinist 
theory  of  volition  and  to  establish  the  relativity  of  all  moral  ideas,  as 
connected  with  particular  stages  of  moral  development.  It  cannot, 
as  Mr.  Sidgwick  has  shown,  provide  a  standard  or  end  of  conduct, 
except  to  those  who  are  already  disposed  to  accept  the  law  sequi 
naturam  as  the  ultimate  rule  of  life." 

I.  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  9th  Edition,  Vol.  VIII.,  p.  772. 


54  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION 

It  is  generally  thought  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has  given  a 
deadly  blow  to  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  Creator  and  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Mr.  Sully  asserts  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  that  nothing  of  the  sort  has  occurred  : — "  Mr.  Spencer 
considers  the  ideas  of  evolution  and  of  a  pre-existing  mind,  incapable 
of  being  united  in  thought.  Yet  according  to  others  the  idea  is  by  no 
means  incompatible  with  the  notion  of  an  original  Creator,  though  it 
serves  undoubtedly  to  remove  the  action  of  such  a  Being  further  from 
our  ken."  "  At  first  sight  it  might  appear  that  the  doctrine  as  applied 
to  the  subjective  world,  by  removing  the  broad  distinction  between 
the  human  and  the  animal  mind,  would  discourage  the  hope  of  a  future 
life  for  man's  soul.  Yet  it  may  be  found  after  all,  that  it  leaves  the 
question  where  it  was.  It  may  perhaps  be  said  that  it  favours  the  old 
disposition  to  attribute  immortality  to  those  lower  forms  of  mind, 
with  which  the  human  mind  is  said  to  be  continuous.  Yet  there  is 
nothing  inconsistent  in  the  supposition  that  a  certain  stage  of  mental 
development  qualifies  a  mind  for  immortality,  even  though  this  stage 
has  been  reached  by  a  very  gradual  process  of  development.  And 
if,  as  it  might  be  shown,  the  modern  doctrine  of  evolution  is  suscep- 
tible of  being  translated  into  terms  of  Leibnitz's  hypothesis  of  indes- 
tructible monads  which  include  all  grades  of  souls,  then  it  is  clearly 
not  contradictory  of  the  idea  of  immortality."1 

In  short,  according  to  Mr.  Sully,  the  theory  of  evolution  is  able  to 
to  accommodate  itself  to  almost  all  kinds  of  philosophical  hypotheses 
as  to  the  origin  and  essence  of  the  universe,  with  the  exception  of 
those  systems  of  thought  which  see  in  the  order  of  the  world  either 
an  increasing  imperfection,  as  with  the  Gnostics,  or  a  series  of  arbitrary 
creative  acts,  like  those  described  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Theism  based  upon  rational  principles  has 
gradually  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  shock  which  the  new 
philosophy  gave  it,  and  we  have  even  seen  theologians  showing  that 
Theism  can  do  without  a  First  Cause,  as  well  as  without  supernatural 
interventions,  in  the  explanation  of  the  universe.  "  There  is  no  longer 
hope,"  writes  Dr.  Martineau,  in  the  Introduction  to  the  Rev.  J.  J. 
Tayler's  work  on  The  Religious  Life  of  England?  "of  finding  a  birth- 

i.  Op.  Cit. 

2.  A  Retrospect  of  the  Religious  Life  of  England,  2nd  Edition,  p.  32. 


AND   THE   CRISIS   OF   THEISM.  55 

day  for  matter,  for  laws,  for  species,  for  planets,  or  even  for  man ; 
and  no  longer  despair  of  comprehending  all  known  phenomena  within 
the  probable  range  of  an  admitted  natural  order.  .  .  .  God  is 
conceived,  not  as  'First  Cause'  prefixed  to  the  scheme  of  things,  but  as 
Indwelling  Cause  pervading  it ;  not  excluded  by  Second  Causes,  but 
coinciding  with  them  while  transcending  them- — as  the  One  ever- 
living  Objective  Agency,  the  modes  of  which  must  be  classified  and 
interpreted,  by  science  in  the  outer  field,  by  conscience  in  the  inner. 
This  change  of  conception  is  due  to  the  lessened  prominence  of 
mechanical  ideas  and  the  advance  of  physiology  to  a  dominant  posi- 
tion, substituting  the  thought  of  life  working  from  within  for  that  of 
transitive  impulse  starting  from  without.  Under  this  higher  form  of 
religious  thought,  all  need  entirely  ceases  of  reaching  a  creative  epoch 
when  the  divine  "  Fiat "  went  forth,  and  prior  to  which  was  an  eternal 
solitude  of  God  :  or  of  finding  tasks  accomplished  which  are  beyond 
the  resources  of  the  known  method  of  the  world :  or  of  insisting  on 
gaps  in  the  continuity  of  being,  which  only  paroxysms  of  Omnipo- 
tence could  overlap ;  and  the  breakdown,  therefore,  of  the  old  proofs 
on  these  points  leaves  Theism  quite  unharmed.  The  modern  science 
does  not  even  disturb  us  with  a  new  idea,  for  'evolution'  is  only 
growth ;  it  merely  raises  the  question  how  far  into  the  field  of  nature 
that  idea  can  properly  be  carried — a  question  surely  of  no  religious  . 
significance.  .  .  .  The  Unity  of  the  Causal  Power,  which  is  all 
that  the  spreading  network  of  analogies  can  establish,  cannot  possibly 
be  unwelcome  to  those  who  regard  it  all  as  the  working  of  one  mind." 

It  is  further  worthy  of  note,  that  Scepticism  has  not  as  yet  reached 
the  masses  of  the  English  nation.  Even  in  the  sphere  of  literature 
and  art  it  is  probable  that  the  majority  believe  in  a  sort  of  vague 
Theism,  susceptible  of  being  transformed  into  positive  faith  or  into 
cavilling  unbelief,  according  to  the  development  of  character,  or  the 
pressure  of  external  circumstances.  It  is  nothing  more  than  we  might 
expect  therefore  that  positive  faith  should  continue  to  predominate  in 
the  masses,  and  even  among  the  middle  classes.  There  is  hardly  any 
exception  to  this,  save  among  the  workmen  of  the  towns,  who  are 
always  more  or  less  hostile  to  the  idea  of  attendance  at  public  worship ; 
but  even  their  indifference  seems  to  have  been  largely  encroached 
upon,  of  late,  by  the  revivals  of  the  Methodists  and  the  zeal  of  the 


56  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EVOLUTION. 

Salvation  Army.  And  finally,  the  fact  must  not  be  overlooked  that 
the  Churches,  at  least  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Protestant  denomina- 
tions, are  seeking  to  keep  abreast  of  the  ideas  of  the  age ;  and  these 
attempts  form  one  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  religious 
evolution  I  have  undertaken  to  describe. 


CHAPTER      III 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT  IN  ORTHODOX 
PROTESTANTISM. 


The  English  Protestant  sects  according  to  the  Census  of  1881— The  English  Church: 
its  organization,  its  resources,  its  strength,  and  its  privileges— Its  religious  parties 
—The  theological  narrowness  and  philanthropical  activity  of  the  Low  Church 
party— The  High  Church  party— The  reactionary  significance  of  the  Puseyite 
movement— Anglican  Ritualism  and  the  conquests  of  the  Roman  Church— The 
formation  of  the  Broad  Church  section  :  its  symbolic  and  critical  schools— The 
noise  made  by  Essays  and  Reviews— Bishop  Colenso  and  the  Pentateuch— The 
increasing  tendency  to  explain  miracles  by  natural  causes— The  decline  of  dogma 
—Opposition  to  the  Athanasian  Creed— The  false  position  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Broad  Church  party— The  eventual  revision  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles— The 
movement  for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State— Probable  results  of  Disestab- 
lishment in  England— Statistics  of  the  orthodox  Nonconformist  sects— Methodists 
—Baptists— Presbyterianism  in  Scotland  and  in  England— Congregationalists— 
The  sects  of  less  importance— The  general  character  of  Dissent— The  growth  of 
ideas  in  the  narrowest  of  the  orthodox  sects— Schisms  and  expulsions— The 
progress  of  Rationalism  in  the  Churches  accessible  to  theological  change— The 
enfeeblement  of  the  Sectarian  spirit— The  Evangelical  Alliance— -The  united 
action  of  the  Churches  in  moral  and  philanthropical  efforts— The  barrier  of 
creeds. 


"If  there  were  but  one  religion  in  England,"  said  Voltaire,  "its  des- 
potism would  have  to  be  feared ;  if  there  were  only  two  they  would  cut 
each  other's  throats  j  but  as  there  are  thirty  they  live  together  in  peace 
and  happiness."  Still,  Voltaire  did  not  estimate  the  sects  beyond  the 
pale  of  the  Establishment  as  more  than  a  twentieth  part  of  the  nation, 
and  he  thought  they  were  all  destined  to  be  swallowed  up  by  their  great 
rival.  Up  to  the  present,  however,  events  have  been  far  enough  from 
justifying  his  prediction.  According  to  the  official  returns  of  1882, 
there  existed  in  England  and  Wales  t86  sects,  twelve  of  which  had 
arisen  during  the  preceding  year,  whilst  only  a  single  one  had  dis- 
appeared during  the  same  period.1  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however, 
that  many  of  these  denominations  differ  merely  in  name,  purpose,  or 
organization.  Thus  of  the  twelve  new  communions  which  were  formed 
between  the  1st  of  September,  1881,  and  the  31st  of  August,  1882, 
I.    Whitaker's  Almanack  for  1885  gives  the  number  as  197 .—  Translator : 


58  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

eight  were  simply  separate  orders  connected  with  the  military  forms 
so  oddly  introduced  into  religious  propagandism  by  the  Salvation 
Army.  These  new  orders  are  the  Army  of  the  King's  Own,  the 
Christian  Army,  the  Gospel  Temperance  Blue  Ribbon  Army,  the 
Holiness  Army,  the  Hosannah  Army,  the  Redeemed  Army,  the  Royal 
Gospel  Army,  and  the  Salvation  Navy.  Among  the  four  others  there 
are  two  which  appear  to  be  purely  evangelical  associations, — the 
Christian  Evangelists  and  the  Christian  Pioneers ;  the  third  is  a 
rationalistic  society,  the  Aletheans  ;  and  the  last  a  Calvinistic  organi- 
zation, the  Calvinistic  Independents. 

Then,  again,  a  certain  number  of  particular  sects  may  represent 
but  a  single  sub-division  of  one  of  the  great  branches  of  Protestantism. 
Thus,  the  Methodists  figure  in  the  returns  as  consisting  of  seventeen 
denominations,  the  Baptists  form  fifteen,  and  the  Anglicans  themselves 
nine.  This  arises  from  the  fact  that  certain  associations  (formed  for 
moral  and  religious  purposes)  claim  the  character  of  distinct  sects,  in 
order  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privileges  which  the  law  grants  to 
ecclesiastical  bodies.  Such,  for  example,  are  the  Association  for  the 
Defence  of  the  Bible,  the  Evangelical  Association  of  Missions  to 
Workmen,  and  the  Christian  Young  Men's  Association, 

Taking  into  account  these  circumstances,  we  may  estimate  the 
number  of  sects,  properly  so  called,  at  about  thirty,  which  is,  indeed, 
a  tolerably  respectable  figure  for  a  population  of  about  twenty-six 
millions.  It  may  be  added,  on  behalf  of  those  who  think  they  see  in 
this  diversity  of  form  a  source  of  weakness  for  the  religious  sentiment, 
that  according  to  the  same  statistics  England  possessed  on  the  ist  of 
September,  1882,  21,864  places  of  worship,  or  712  more  than  1881.1 

Before  passing  on  to  a  description  of  these  different  sects,  it  will 
perhaps  be  of  interest  to  reproduce  the  following  statistics,  which 
furnish  data  more  or  less  approximative  respecting  the  different  kinds 
of  religious  belief  that  prevail  in  the  various  countries  where  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  language  is  spoken.2 

1.  This  number  had  risen  to  23,341  by  the  beginning  of  1885. — Translator. 

2.  The  figures  and  information  given  in  this  chapter  are  borrowed  for  the  most 
part  from  Whitaker's  Almanack  for  1883;  from  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  9th 
Edition,  Vol.  I.  to  XIII.  ;  from  the  Encyclopedic  des  sciences  relegieuses,  published 
under  the  direction  of  M.  F.  Lichtenberger ;  and  lastly  from  a  useful  compilation 
by  Mr.  William  Burder,  A  History  of  all  Religions.  Philadelphia,  1873  (Parts  IV. 
and  V.) 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM. 


59 


Episcopalians        ...         ...         ...         ...  20,500,000 

Methodists            15,500,000 

Roman  Catholics...          ...          ...          ...  14,100,000 

Presbyterians        ...          ...  10,300,000 

Baptists                 8,050,000 

Congregationalists             ...          ...          ...  6,000,000 

Unitarians             ...          ...          ...          ...  1,000,000 

Persons  belonging  to   other  sects,  Free- 
thinkers, or  those  with  no  known  belief        1 1,350,000* 

The  Episcopal  Church,  which  ceased  to  be  the  established  religion 
of  Scotland  in  1689,  and  of  Ireland  in  187 1,  has  lost,  even  in  England, 
all  those  of  its  privileges  which  are  inconsistent  with  the  civil  and 
political  equality  of  the  people.  Still  it  remains  the  National  Church 
par  excellence,  the  Church  of  England,  the  only  one  which  the  State 
supports  and  regulates.  Not  only  do  its  ministers  take  part  in  public 
ceremonies  in  their  official  capacity,  but  even  more,  it  shares  in  the 
legislation  of  the  country  by  means  of  its  Bishops,  who  sit  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  Regarded  as  the  sole  heir  of  the  property  bequeathed 
to  the  Roman  Church  in  England  before  the  Reformation,  it  is  alone 
capable  of  possessing  and  inheriting  property  in  the  interest  of  religion, 
apart  from  the  exceptions  formally  established  by  law  in  favour  of 
certain  special  sects.  On  the  other  hand,  it  remains  subject  to  public 
authority,  which  regulates  its  organization,  watches  over  its  discipline, 
names  its  leaders,  and  possesses  the  right  to  define  its  creeds.  It  is 
the  aggregate  of  these  privileges  and  obligations  which  constitutes 
what  is  spoken  of  as  the  Establishment  of  the  Anglican  Church. 

In  187 1  the  Established  Church  possessed  sixteen  thousand  places 
of  worship.  Its  members,  estimated  at  thirteen  millions  in  England, 
belong,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  aristocracy,  the  upper  middle  classes, 
and  the  members  of  the  Universities,  and,  on  the  other,  to  the  rural 
population  of  the  greater  part  of  the  country.  The  labouring  and 
artizan  classes  of  the  towns  generally  hold  aloof  from  its  services,  and 
this  explains  the  encouragement  which  a  certain  number  of  the  High 
Church  clergy  have  given  to  the  practises  of  the   Salvation  Army.2 

1.  These  hypothetical  statistics  are  slightly  varied  in  their  application  to  1885. 
— Translator. 

2.  The  publication  of  the  secret  instructions  of  the  Army,  as  well  as  the  exag- 
gerated form  of  its  pious  eccentricities,  has  of  late  greatly  alienated  the  sympathies  of 


60  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

Finally,  in  some  of  the  rural  districts  where  Dissent  predominates, 
and  specially  in  Wales,  its  members  form  but  a  very  small  minority 
of  the  population.  Its  riches  are  immense ;  its  annual  revenue  amounts 
to  some  six  millions  sterling,  more  than  two-thirds  of  which  is  fixed 
income,  the  remainder  being  the  result  of  voluntary  effort.1 

The  Anglican  Church  is  subdivided  into  two  ecclesiastical  provinces 
—  Canterbury  and  York — which  are  presided  over  by  two  archbishops 
who  receive  £15,000  and  £  10,000  a  year  respectively.  Under  these 
archiepiscopal  chiefs  there  are  thirty-three  bishops  whose  incomes 
range  from  £2,000  to  £10,000  a  year;  thirty  deans  who  receive  from 
£700  to  £3,000;  eighty-five  archdeacons;  six  hundred  and  thirteen 
rural-deans,  and  finally  about  thirteen  thousand  five  hundred  beneficed 
clergymen  who  are  assisted  by  an  army  of  curates.2  The  members 
of  the  Episcopal  Bench  are  chosen  by  the  Crown.  Presentation, 
however,  to  the  spiritual  charge  of  a  parish,  belongs  in  the  majority 
of  cases  to  the  largest  proprietor  of  the  district,  as  a  legal  right. 
This  is  called  the  right  of  presentation  to  a  living,  and  it  is  by  no 
means  a  rare  thing  to  see  the  clerical  office  put  up  for  sale  at  a  public 
auction  and  adjudged  to  the  highest  bidder. 

The  legislative  power  of  the  Church  resides  in  Parliament.  It  is 
true,  there  exists,  in  each  of  the  two  ecclesiastical  Provinces,  an 
annual  assembly  or  Convocation,  constituted  by  the  high  dignitaries 
of  the  Church  and  by  delegates  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  clergy. 
But  this  clerical  parliament  of  two  Houses  has  little  more  than  a 
deliberative  power,  and  it  may  even  be  suspended  or  dissolved  by  an 
Act  of  Parliament.  The  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  for  instance, 
was  virtually  suspended  in  1 7 1 7  on  account  of  the  sympathy  which 
its  principal  members  showed  for  the  Stuarts  ;  and  it  was  not  officially 
reconstituted  till  i860. 

the  English  Episcopate.  In  one  of  the  sittings  of  the  Upper  House  of  Convocation, 
held  on  the  10th  of  May,  1883,  the  tendency  of  the  movement  was  keenly  criticised 
by  the  Bishops  of  Oxford,  Rochester,  Hereford,  Chichester,  and  Lichfield.  The  last- 
mentioned  prelate  related,  as  the  most  recent  eccentricities  of  the  Salvationists  in 
his  diocese,  that  at  Derby  one  of  their  captains  had  promised,  by  means  of  public 
bills,  to  stand  on  his  head  for  ten  minutes  and  preach  the  gospel.  "And  what  is 
more,"  added  his  Lordship,  "he  kept  his  word." 

1 .  This  estimate  of  the  income  of  the  Established  Church  is  too  small ;  eight 
millions  would  probably  be  nearer  the  mark.  —  Translator. 

2.  The  number  of  Bishops  and  other  dignitaries  mentioned  here  is  corrected  up 
to  1885. — Translator. 


IN    ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  61 

This  hierarchical  and  centralizing  organization  has  not  prevented 
the  English  Church  from  being  always  distracted  by  contending  par- 
ties, among  which  it  has  been  compelled  to  establish  a  compromise. 
At  present  these  divergent  tendencies  are  respectively  represented  by 
the  High,  Low,  and  Broad  sections  of  the  Church. 

The  Low  Church  or  Evangelical  party  which  has  developed  itself 
along  the  lines  traced  out  by  Wesley  and  his  Anglican  followers, 
is  closely  related  in  doctrine  to  the  sects  which  carry  their  reverence 
for  the  Scriptures  to  Bibliolatry  and  lay  special  stress  upon  the  doc- 
trines of  Redemption  by  the  blood  of  Christ.  Low  Churchmen, 
who  chiefly  belong  to  the  middle  classes,  have  played  an  important 
part  in  all  the  great  philanthropical  movements  of  English  society, 
since  the  close  of  the  last  century,  as  for  instance  in  the  agitation  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  the  Temperance  Cause,  the  various  associa- 
tions for  the  moral  and  material  improvement  of  the  lower  classes, 
and  the  organization  of  Foreign  Missions.  It  would  be  unjust,  more- 
over, to  disregard  the  claims  which  the  members  of  this  party  possess, 
upon  the  gratitude  of  the  public,  for  their  activity  in  the  foundation 
of  schools,  hospitals  and  various  kinds  of  asylums.  But  the  narrow- 
ness of  its  theological  views  weakens  its  influence,  which  pulpit  minis- 
trations that  turn  almost  exclusively  on  the  flames  of  Hell  and  the 
Merits  of  the  Atonement,  are  but  little  calculated  to  raise  and 
strengthen.  Hostile  alike  to  Rationalism  and  to  Ritualism,  this  party 
established  in  1865  an  organization  entitled  the  Church  Association, 
with  a  view  to  meet  the  expenses  of  prosecutions  for  heresy  before 
the  ecclesiastical  Courts  of  the  country.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
some  of  its  partizans  have  continued  their  evolution  in  the  direction 
of  the  Evangelical  sects.  Thus  there  was  founded  in  1849,  the  Free 
Church  of  England,  which  numbers  at  present  forty  congregations. 
Another  Church,  due  to  an  analogous  movement,  but  of  American 
origin,  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  has  also  been  extending 
itself  in  England  since  1873,  at  the  expense  of  the  Low  Church 
party. 

Now  whilst  the  Low  Church  section  of  the  clergy  bases  its  teaching 
on  the  essentially  Protestant  principle  of  Justification  by  Faith,  the 
High  Church  party,  on  the  other  hand,  insists  upon  the  authority  of 
the  Apostolic  tradition,  as  this  is  embodied  in  the  universal  Church. 
This  re-actionary  and  ritualistic  school  received  a  powerful  impulse 


62  THE   PROGRESS    OF   THOUGHT 

from  the  romantic  movement  which  passed  over  Great  Britain,  as  well 
as  the  rest  of  Europe,  about  1830.  A  group  of  distinguished  young 
men  belonging  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  which  has  long  personified 
in  England,  not  only  high  literary  culture,  but  also  the  most  conser- 
vative social  and  religious  tendencies — Dr.  Pusey,  Dr.  Newman,  the 
poet  Keble,  and  Mr.  Froude  (the  brother  of  the  historian) — sought, 
by  a  series  of  small  publications,  which  rapidly  became  popular  under 
the  general  title  of  Tracts  for  the  Times,  to  extend  to  religious  insti- 
tutions the  fashion  which  prevailed  everywhere  else  as  a  return  to  the 
conceptions  and  customs  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  reality,  this  move- 
ment, which  was  destined  to  become  associated  with  the  name  of 
Dr.  Pusey,  was  far  more  than  a  simple  return  to  the  ancient  liturgies 
and  symbols  of  the  Church.  Its  promoters,  under  the  pretext  of 
attributing  to  the  traditions  of  the  first  six  centuries  the  authority 
which  the  Reformed  Churches  merely  concede  to  the  decisions  of 
the  first  Councils,  set  about  extolling  the  invocation  of  the  saints,  the 
worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  re-establishment  of  the  Mass,  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  auricular  confession,  the  dogma  of  the  Real 
Presence,  the  Roman  doctrine  of  the  sacraments,  and  finally,  and 
above  all,  the  supernatural  prerogatives  of  the  priesthood  considered 
as  a  necessary  agency  between  the  worshipper  and  God.1 

Ritualism  has  maintained  its  ground  in  the  Established  Church, 
where  it  shows  itself  chiefly  to-day  in  the  Gothic  style  of  its  architec- 
ture, in  the  richness  of  its  sacerdotal  vestments,  and  in  the  complicated 
symbolism  of  its  ceremonies.  It  specially  predominates  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  Scotland,  as  a  natural  re-action  against  the  Puritan  bald- 
ness of  the  Calvinism  which  constitutes  the  doctrine  of  the  Established 
Presbyterian  Church.  It  is  only  a  tenth  of  the  Anglican  clergy  who 
are  members  of  the  English  Church  Union.     But  the  most  logical  and 

1.  The  position  taken  up  by  English  Ritualism  is  almost  identical  with  that  of 
the  Old  Catholic  party  of  Germany,  since  both  profess  a  sort  of  Catholicism  without 
acknowledging  the  Papacy.  Still  it  is  said  that  when  Dr.  Dollinger  made  advances 
to  the  Episcopal  Church,  with  a  view  to  some  common  ground  of  action,  the 
Ritualists  met  his  proposal  with  great  reserve,  if  not  with  downright  coldness.  This 
circumstance  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  two  movements  sprang  from  opposite 
tendencies  of  thought.  Puseyism,  for  instance,  is  the  starting  point  of  a  retrograde 
course,  while  Old  Catholicism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  commencement  oi  a  for- 
ward movement  in  the  order  of  the  evolution  of  the  human  mind.  Thus  their  actual 
nearness  of  views  is  like  the  proximity  of  two  trains  advancing  in  opposite  directions. 
— (  Vide  Moncure  Conway,  A  Study  on  the  Lives  of  Sterling  and  Maurice.) 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  63 

courageous  partizans  of  the  Tractarian  movement  did  not  halt  midway 
in  their  retrogressive  career,  which,  originating  in  a  mistrust  of  modern 
civilization,  tended  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Ecclesiasticism  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Hence,  within  ten  years  of  the  publication  of  the  Tracts 
for  the  Times,  Dr.  Newman,  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Puseyites, 
finished  his  evolution  in  the  arms  of  the  Roman  Church,  as  Carlyle 
somewhere  says,  "  like  a  child  who  has  roamed  all  day  on  a  silenced 
battlefield,  going  back  at  night  to  the  breast  of  his  dead  mother." 

Dr.  Newman  is  now  a  Cardinal,  and  the  numerous  conversions 
which  followed  his,  not  only  in  the  ranks  of  the  Anglican  clergy,  but  from 
among  the  aristocracy,  might  have  led  to  the  supposition  that  a  large 
section  of  English  society  was  on  the  road  to  Canossa.  Some  of  the 
advocates  of  scepticism  in  England  have  even  applauded  this  movement 
as  a  confirmation  of  their  favourite  theory,  that  between  Catholicism 
and  irreligion  there  is  no  halting-place.  But  it  seems  that,  like  the 
Roman  Church  itself,  they  mistook  their  hopes  for  reality.  Since 
its  complete  emancipation  in  Great  Britain,  Catholicism  has  specially 
directed  its  attention  to  the  restoration  of  the  rich  and  governing 
classes  to  its  fold.  Favoured  by  a  certain  fashion,  it  has  succeeded  in 
a  few  exceptional  cases,  which  made  a  great  noise  at  the  time ;  but  it 
may  be  safely  affirmed  that  the  mass  of  the  nation  has  not  been  even 
touched.1 

Turning  to  the  Latitudinarian  or  liberal  section  of  the  Anglican 
clergy,  we  find  that  it  has  formed,  since  the  days  of  Coleridge,  what 
is  now  called  the  Broad  Church  party.     Coleridge,  who,  before  his 

I.  It  would  be  of  interest  to  determine  whether  the  much-talked-of  conversions 
of  a  few  distinguished  persons  have  not  been  amply  compensated  for  by  the  losses 
of  Romanism,  in  favour  either  of  Protestantism  or  of  Freethought.  In  17S0  the 
Catholics  numbered  only  70,000  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales;  in  1880  they 
possessed  more  than  1,300,000  adherents.  But  in  estimating  the  value  of  these 
figures,  account  must  be  taken  of  three  distinct  factors  :  (1)  The  natural  develop- 
ment of  the  old  Catholic  families ;  (2)  the  Catholics  of  foreign  origin  and  their 
descendants ;  (3)  the  Catholics  of  Irish  origin  who  have  immigrated  into  England. 
This  last  factor  alone  accounts  for  about  half  the  total  number.  Mr.  G.  F.  Rawlin- 
son,  indeed,  goes  so  far  as  to  maintain,  in  a  statistical  statement  published  in  1874, 
in  the  Geographical  Magazine,  that  the  conversions  effected  by  Catholicism  in  Eng- 
land since  the  commencement  of  the  century,  do  not  compensate  for  its  losses,  if 
regard  be  had  to  the  general  increase  of  the  population.  At  all  events,  it  is  an  un- 
deniable fact  that  the  number  of  Catholics  in  England  and  Wales,  which  in  1854 
amounted  to  4^24  of  the  population,  represented  only  4'6i  in  1866,  and  no  more 
than  4'44  in  1877. — (  Vide,  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  under  the  heading  England. 


64  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

return  to  the  Established  Church,  had  re-habilitated  a  theory  of  the 
Trinity,  after  the  manner  of  Schelling,  saw  his  method  of  dogmatic 
interpretation  accepted  with  all  the  greater  eagerness  by  the  enlight- 
ened champions  of  Anglican  doctrines,  because  the  theology  of  the 
day  had  been  roused  to  the  need  of  adjusting  itself  to  the  require- 
ments of  German  idealism,  and  because  the  miraculous  elements  of 
Christianity  were  beginning  to  lose  their  hold  upon  public  opinion. 
There  was  then  seen  to  gradually  rise  a  new  form  of  Alexandrian 
mysticism,  at  once  Christian  and  rationalistic,  which  made  the  divine 
immanence  the  central  principle  of  Christianity ;  enlarged  the  idea  of 
Revelation  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  of  it  a  permanent  and  general 
gift  of  humanity ;  and,  finally,  opened  the  door  to  the  conception  of 
an  unlimited  development  of  religious  beliefs. 

•  The  principal  result  of  this  theology  has  been  the  ever-increasing 
importance  of  Biblical  exegesis.  Even  during  the  first  half  of  the 
century,  Dr.  Arnold  paved  the  way  to  larger  views,  but  without  throw- 
ing down  the  gauntlet  to  orthodoxy.  It  was  only  in  the  following 
generation  that  the  conclusions  of  German  criticism  really  penetrated 
into  the  English  Church.  In  1860,  for  instance,  seven  distinguished 
writers,  five  of  whom  were  clergymen,  published,  under  the  title  of 
Essays  and  Reviews,  a  volume  which  embodied  the  following  scheme 
of  thought :— (i)  The  necessity  of  reform  in  theology  by  the  applica- 
tion of  the  historical  and  critical  method  to  the  science  of  religion ; 
(2)  Emancipation  from  the  literal  and  supernatural  authority  of  the 
Bible ;  (3)  Adhesion  to  the  principle  of  development  of  religious 
beliefs  in  opposition  to  the  assumed  fixity  of  dogma.1 

This  publication,  which  spread,  under  the  segis  of  the  Establish- 
ment, the  boldest  results  of  contemporary  criticism,  caused  a  lively 
state  of  feeling  in  all  the  sections  of  Anglicanism ;  the  evangelical 
press  denounced  the  innovators'  with  the  utmost  vehemence,  and  more 
than  two  thousand  clergymen  demanded  their  expulsion  from  the 
Church.  Dragged  before  all  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  the  bold  writers 
were  none  the  less  ultimately  acquitted  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  this 
adjudication,  followed  some  years  later  by  the  acquittal  of  Bishop 
Colenso,  who  had  laid  a  sacreligious  hand  on  the  unity  and  antiquity 
of  the  Pentateuch,  gave  at  last  to  religious  criticism  the  right  of  abode 

1.  Vide,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  of  June,  1S75,  an  article  by  M.  Albert 
Reville,  on  Liberal  Anglicanism. 


IN    ORTHODOX    PROTESTANTISM.  65 

in  Anglican  theology.1  One  of  the  essayists,  Dr.  Temple,  is  now 
Bishop  of  Exeter;2  and  another,  Professor  Jowett,  has  been  recently 
made  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Broad  Church  party  forms  but  a  brilliant 
staff  without  a  following.  But  this  group  of  superior  and  learned  men 
exercise  none  the  less  a  profound  influence  on  the  general  tone  of 
Anglican  theology.  It  is  to  them  that  the  latter  owes  its  increasing 
repugnance  to  insist  upon  the  miraculous  aspects  of  religion,  as  well 
as  its  tendency  to  explain  the  origin  and  development  of  Christianity 
without  recourse  to  supernatural  agencies. 

Even  the  rationalistic  criticism  of  the  school  which  has  sought  to 
free  itself  from  embarrassment,  by  mutilating  the  Biblical  narrative  in 
order  to  obtain  from  it  a  meaning  in  conformity  with  the  affirmations 
of  science,  finds  itself  completely  antiquated  to-day.  "  There  were 
and  are — said  Dean  Stanley  at  the  funeral  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell — two 
modes  of  reconciliation  which  have  each  totally  and  deservedly  failed. 
The  one  attempts  to  wrest  the  words  of  the  Bible  from  their  real 
meaning,  and  force  them  to  speak  the  language  of  science ;  and  the 
other  attempts  to  falsify  science  in  order  to  meet  the  supposed  require- 
ments of  the  Bible." 

The  time  has  passed  in  which  all  was  regarded  as  saved  when  the 
"  days"  of  Genesis  had  been  transformed  into  geological  periods,  when 
the  alleged  priority  of  light  to  the  sun  had  been  explained  as  due  to 
the  thickness  of  the  atmospheric  vapours  which  prevailed  during  the 
early  ages  of  the  earth's  history,  and  when  the  most  questionable 
passages  of  the  Old  Testament  were  interpreted  as  allegories  possessed 
of  a  lofty  morality.  Even  Dr.  Arnold  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that 
there  is  a  poetic  element  in  the  earlier  pages  of  Sacred  History,  and 
there  are  but  few  eminent  theologians  in  the  English  Church  to-day, 

1.  I  know  of  few  signs  more  significant  of  the  progress  made  by  public  opinion 
in  this  matter  than  the  dinner  given  in  honour  of  Professor  Kuenen,  when  that 
eminent  Dutch  critic  was  invited  by  the  managers  of  the  Hibbert  Trust  to  deliver  a 
series  of  lectures  on  the  growth  of  the  great  systems  of  religion.  All  shades  of 
religious  opinion  in  England  were  represented  at  the  banquet,  from  Agnosticism  to 
Catholicism,  inclusive  of  Jews,  Unitarians,  and  ministers  of  the  Established  Church. 
Mr.  Moncure  Conway,  who,  as  one  of  the  guests,  described  this  banquet  with  much 
humour  in  a  contribution  to  the  Boston  Index  of  June  the  15th,  1882,  justly  observes 
that  it  marks  an  entire  revolution  of  theological  opinion. 

2.  At  the  beginning  of  1885  Dr.  Temple  was  elevated  to  the  See  of  London,  as 
successor  to  Dr.  Jackson. — Translator. 

F 


66  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

who  do  not  regard  the  Biblical  narrative  as  the  fruit  of  an  inspiration 
which,  though  certainly  divine  in  its  source,  has  been  registered  by 
human  and  therefore  fallible  interpreters. 

Thus  the  bishop,  who  presided  over  the  recent  Anglican  Congress 
held  at  Melbourne  in  Australia,  said,  in  his  inaugural  address,  that  we 
should  seek  to  state  the  whole  truth  respecting  the  Bible,  and  not  leave 
any  room  for  the  accusation  of  the  opponents  of  religion,  who  charge 
us  with  refusing  to  admit  that  there  is  a  human  element  in  the  sacred 
books.1  From  this  position  to  that  of  regarding  the  Gospels  and  the 
rest  of  the  New  Testament  as  forming  a  work  superior  in  quality,  but 
identical  in  kind  to  the  religious  literature  of  other  ancient  peoples, 
there  is  but  a  step  which  it  is  easy  for  a  school  of  theologians  to  take, 
who  consider  the  incarnation  of  the  Divine  in  human  consciousness 
as  a  natural  and  universal  fact. 

Even  the  intervention  of  Providence  in  the  course  of  human  affairs 
or  in  the  evolution  of  natural  phenomena  has  been  openly  called  in 
question  in  the  Established  Church.  The  American  journal,  the 
Index,  of  the  15th  of  June,  1882,  rightly  mentioned,  as  a  sign  of  pro- 
gress in  the  ideas  of  the  clergy,  the  fact  that  an  Australian  bishop 
had  just  previously  refused  to  authorize  the  use  of  public  prayer  for 
rain,  alleging  that  atmospheric  changes  are  regulated  by  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  that  if  the  piously  disposed  desired  a  remedy  for  drought, 
they  would  do  well  to  improve  the  system  of  irrigation. 

It  is  noteworthy,  moreover,  that  the  dogmas  of  the  churches  are 
following  in  the  train  of  the  Miracles.  Speaking  generally  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Fall  and  of  the  Atonement  are  as  far  as  possible  passed 
over  in  silence  by  the  Broad  Church  clergy.  As  to  the  doctrines  not 
formally  mentioned  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  such  as  Eternal 
Punishment,  the  existence  of  a  Personal  Devil  and  the  like— these 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  contradict  and  at  times  condemn.  Between 
the  Trinity  as  it  is  conceived  of  by  Dr.  Martineau  among  the  Unitar- 
ians, and  by  the  late  Dean  Stanley  among  the  Anglicans,  there  is 
scarcely  the  thickness  of  the  paper  on  which  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles 
are  written,  and  age  has  terribly  thinned  that  venerable  document.2 

1.  Times,  January  4,  1883. 

2.  Compare  Dr.  Martineau's  pamphlet,  The  Three  Stages  of  Unitarian  Theology 
(1st  Edition,  London,  1879),  with  an  article  published  by  Dean  Stanley  in  the 
XIX.  Century  of  Aug.,  1880,  under  the  title  of  The  Creed  of  the  Early  Christians. 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  67 

Hence  we  need  feel  no  astonishment  that  a  minister  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  the  Rev.  C.  Maurice  Davies,  when  describing  the  heterodox 
congregations  of  London,  should  have  hesitated  to  characterise  the 
general  position  of  Unitarianism  by  this  term,  "  except  for  etymological 
reasons."  "  Between  them,  he  adds,  and  some  of  our  more  advanced 
clergy  in  the  Establishment,  there  is  little  difference."1  The  Chris tian 
Standard,  an  orthodox  journal,  has  spoken  out  still  more  explicitly  on 
the  subject.  "  Unitarians,"  he  said  in  September  1876,  "  have  posses- 
sion to  a  great  extent  of  the  pulpits  of  the  Church  of  England.  Broad 
Churchism  is  an  interchangeable  phrase  for  Unitarianism,''  and  this  in 
many  cases  known  to  ourselves."  It  is  true  the  Christian  Standard 
is  an  organ  of  the  Dissenters,  but  its  sincerity  is  shown  by  its  hastening 
to  state  that,  in  Nonconformist,  as  well  as  in  Anglican  pulpits,  there 
are  a  considerable  number  of  Unitarians,  that  is  to  say  men  who 
profess  Unitarian  opinions. 

Such  is  the  general  situation  which  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  recently 
characterised  by  professing  his  profound  satisfaction  that  the  Church 
was  each  day  becoming  broader  and  more  liberal.  Still  it  is  a  question 
that  may  be  asked,  how  sincere  minds  are  able  to  reconcile  this  breadth 
of  opinions  with  their  acceptance  of  the  doctrines  which  serve  as  the 
official  basis  of  the  Establishment.  It  is  clear,  indeed,  that  the  existing 
beliefs  of  the  Broad  Church  party  are  in  antagonism  to  the  spirit  if 
not  to  the  letter  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles.2 

The  learned  Dean  of  Westminster  presents  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  there  as  a 
formula  expressive  of  the  comprehensiveness  and  diversity  of  the  Divine  Essence. 
According  to  him,  the  Three  Persons  are  simply  the  three  revelations,  the  three 
modes  by  which  God  manifests  himself  in  turn,  in  nature,  in  history,  and  in  the 
human  soul.  In  illustration  of  this  he  says — "There  are  in  the  sanctuaries  of  the 
old  churches  in  the  East,  on  Mount  Athos,  sacred  pictures  intended  to  represent  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  As  the  spectator  stands  on  one  side  he  sees  only  the  figure 
of  our  Saviour  on  the  Cross;  as  he  stands  on  the  other  side,  he  sees  only  the 
Heavenly  Dove  ;  as  he  stands  in  front  he  sees  only  the  Ancient  of  Days,  the  Eternal 
Father." — It  needed  less  than  this  to  make  Calvin  send  Servetus  to  the  stake. 

1.  Heterodox  London,  Vol.  I.,  p.  311. 

2.  Since  this  work  was  written,  three  books  have  been  published  in  England 
which  may  be  advantageously  mentioned  here  as  bearing  on  the  subject.  Taking 
them  in  their  chronological  order,  there  is  first  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World, 
by  Professor  Drummond,  a  work  which  has  caused  some  considerable  stir  in  the 
theological  world  from  its  bold  attempt  to  rehabilitate  Calvinism  in  the  guise  of 
modern  science.  The  author  says  in  his  preface:  "The  real  problem  I  have  set 
myself  may  be  stated  in  a  sentence.  Is  there  not  reason  to  believe  that  many  of 
the  laws  of  the  Spiritual  World,  hitherto  regarded  as  occupying  an  entirely  separate 


68  ,  THE   PROGRESS    OF   THOUGHT 

It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  see  in  this  logical  inconsistency 
simply  the  effect  of  material  considerations,  or  any  want  of  moral 
courage.  Such  weaknesses  are  doubtless  to  be  met  with  in  the 
Anglican  Establishment,  as  well  as  in  all  other  Churches ;  but  a 
suspicion  of  the  kind  cannot  for  a  moment  be  entertained  of  such 
men  as  Stanley,  Temple,  Rowland  Williams,  Kingsley,  and  Colenso. 
The  truth  is,  that  with  the  Broad  Church  clergy  the  sentiment  of 
religious  communion  predominates  over  all  questions  of  dogma.    Their 

province,  are  simply  the  laws  of  the  Natural  World  ?  Can  we  identify  the  natural 
laws,  or  any  of  them,  in  the  spiritual  sphere?" — So  much  for  the  problem  ;  here  is 
what  the  reader  is  told  as  to  the  need  of  its  solution — "  The  effect  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  Law  among  the  scattered  phenomena  of  nature  has  simply  been  to  make 
science,  to  transform  knowledge  into  eternal  truth.  The  same  crystallising  touch  is 
needed  in  Religion.  Can  it  be  said  that  the  phenomena  of  the  Spiritual  World  are 
other  than  scattered  ?  Can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  religious  opinions 
of  mankind  are  in  a  state  of  flux  ?  And  when  we  regard  the  uncertainty  of  current 
beliefs,  the  war  of  creeds,  the  havoc  of  inevitable  as  well  as  idle  doubt,  and  the 
reluctant  abandonment  of  early  faith  by  those  who  would  cherish  it  longer  if  they 
could,  is  it  not  plain  that  the  one  thing  thinking  men  are  waiting  for  is  the  intro- 
duction of  Law  among  the  phenomena  of  the  Spiritual  World?  When  that  comes, 
we  shall  offer  to  such  men  a  truly  scientific  theology.  And  the  reign  of  Law  will 
transform  the  whole  Spiritual  World,  as  it  has  already  transformed  the  Natural 
World." — But  no  sooner  does  Professor  Drummond  set  about  solving  the  problem 
of  which  he  thus  speaks,  than  he  shows  he  is  far  from  being  the  strong  and  faithful 
guide  the  words  just  quoted  would  lead  everyone  to  suppose.  In  short  it  is  soon 
seen  that  he  makes  shipwreck  on  the  rock  of  false  analogies ;  and  that  influenced 
by  prejudice  he  has  cast  aside  the  calm  caution  of  the  scientific  spirit  and  become  a 
theological  dogmatist.  "  Why  a  virtuous  man,"  he  says,  "  should  not  simply  grow 
better  and  better  until  in  his  own  right  he  enters  the  Kingdom  of  God,  is  what 
thousands  honestly  and  seriously  fail  to  understand.  Now  Philosophy  cannot  help 
us  here.  Her  arguments  are,  if  anything,  against  us.  But  Science  answers  to  the 
appeal  at  once.  If  it  be  simply  pointed  out  that  this  is  the  same  absurdity  as  to 
ask  why  a  stone  should  not  grow  more  and  more  living  till  it  enters  the  organic 
world,  the  point  is  clear  in  an  instant."  Surely,  however,  this  illustration  involves 
the  astounding  assumption  that  man  is  not  an  organic  whole ;  that  spiritual  pheno- 
mena are  not  a  part  of  his  being,  as  well  as  mental.  And  where  is  the  proof  of  such 
an  assumption  ?  The  Law  of  Biogenesis,  which  is  here  taken  as  typical  of  the 
theological  doctrine  that  "the  spiritual  man  is  no  mere  development  of  the  natural 
man,"  but  "anew  creation  born  from  above,"  merely  asserts  that  organic  life 
is  a  thing  apart  in  nature.  But  it  does  not  show  that  a  plant  or  one  of  the  inferior 
animals  cannot  attain  to  the  perfection  of  its  being  without  the  importation  of  some 
principle  foreign  to  its  essence,  and  by  a  process  beyond  the  lines  of  its  organic 
development.  Besides,  what  is  false  to  Philosophy  cannot  be  true  to  Science,  since, 
as  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  explains,  Philosophy  is  merely  the  science  of  sciences. 

The  second  of  the  works  in  question — The  Mystery  of  the  Universe  our  Common 
Faith — is  by  a  London  clergyman,  who  is  a  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's,  and  the 
author  of  one  or  two  similar  works  which  have  been  well  received  in  the  orthodox 
section  of  the  theological  world.     The  aim  and  scope  of  the  book  will  be  best 


IN    ORTHODOX    PROTESTANTISM.  69 

dream  is  that  of  an  ecclesiastical  organization  broad  enough  to  com- 
prise all  the  forms  of  Christianity,  from  Unitarianism,  which  would 
in  reality  strengthen  their  own  tendencies,  to  the  most  orthodox  Dis- 
senters, who  would  swell  the  ranks  of  the  Low  Church  party,  while 
the  Ritualists  might  be  allowed  to  follow  their  special  preferences  for 
an  ornate  service. 

In  support  of  this  view,  they  contend  that  such  a  state  of  things 
constitutes  the  true  function  and  the  sole  justification  of  an  Established 
Church.  That  a  church  cannot  be  a  truly  National  Church  if  it  is 
not  sufficiently  comprehensive  to  satisfy  all  the  spiritual  wants  of  the 
nation  and  to  concentrate  all  the  resources  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
on  what  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  calls  "  the  promotion  of  goodness," 
that  is,  the  moral  improvement  of  society.     Which  therefore  is  the 

understood  from  the  following  words: — "The  suspicion  that  verified  science  and 
the  articles  of  our  Common  Faith  are  at  variance,  causes  mistrust  concerning  those 
dogmas  which  Holy  Scripture  requires  us  to  believe  :  mistrust — painful  as  to  the 
present,  and  perilous  as  to  the  future.  So  to  employ  science  as  to  throw  light  on 
the  physical  constitution  of  the  universe,  and  bring  out  clearly  the  great  facts  and 
doctrines  which  accord  our  intellectual  and  emotional  experience,  is  the  emphatic 
requirement  of  this  generation  from  our  thinkers.  Unification  of  all  knowledge  in 
one  verified  system,  a  philosophy  that  combines  theology  and  philosophy,  that  re- 
veals the  Mystery  of  the  Universe,  is  not  beyond  the  power  of  human  reason  ;  in 
any  case  we  may  pursue  it  as  an  ideal  ....  Spirit  is  not  the  sublimate  of 
matter.  Vast  and  various  departments  of  being  lie  within  one  domain  of  existence. 
All  forces  are  the  radii  of  one  Energy,  all  divergences  start  from  one  centre. 
Love  is  a  force  not  less  constraining  than  gravity  :  each  in  its  own  sphere  of  opera- 
tion. The  agency,  everywhere  at  work,  is  the  symbol  of  the  One  Living  Presence: 
the  source  of  all  power  and  life  and  order.  Theology  declares  this  truth  in  one 
language  ;  science  in  another.  The  Word  and  Work,  without  confusion,  testify  to 
mystery ;  to  the  one  Principle  underlying  all  things,  present  everywhere. " — This 
promises  well,  but  Mr.  Reynolds's  book,  like  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World, 
is  extremely  disappointing.  He  does  not  really  grasp  the  spirit  of  science — truth 
for  its  own  sake — nor  does  he  employ  its  methods.  Here  are  one  or  two  illustra- 
tions of  this  :  "  It  was  not  the  whole  Trinity  which  became  personally  united  with 
our  nature  (in  Christ),  but  the  Word  which  was  made  flesh  ;  so  that  two  natures, 
the  Divine  and  human,  became  one  Person  :  the  Eternal  son  is  the  Incarnate  Son. 
.  .  .  The  two  natures  so  formed  one  person — sustained  by  food,  yet  omni- 
potent ;  requiring  outward  light,  though  inwardly  possessed  of  the  glory  of  Godhead 
— that  we  find  the  human  aspect  wholly  man  and  discern  our  brother  ;  we  discover 
the  Divine  reality  and  worship  God.  .  .  .  Moses,  dwelling  in  a  land  of  sun- 
worshippers,  experiencing  every  day  the  power  of  that  sun,  could  neither  be 
ignorant  nor  forgetful  of  the  influence  of  solar  heat  and  light  in  promoting  vegeta- 
tion. That  he  should  speak  of  vegetation,  as  apart  from  that  influence — vegetation 
wholly  different  to  that  which  Egypt  and  the  Wilderness  produced — can  only  be 
accounted  for  by  a  knowledge  surpassing  his  time,  advancing  from  nature  to  nature's 
God.     As  giving  a  statement  of  creation  that  accords  with  accurate  modern  science, 


70  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

right  course  for  them  to  take  ?  Should  they  quit  the  Establishment, 
because  they  find  themselves  in  antagonism  with  certain  details  of  a 
constitution  elaborated  more  than  three  centuries  ago,  in  a  current  of 
religious  thought  which  has  disappeared  to-day ;  or  indeed  stay  in  its 
ranks,  in  conformity  with  the  true  spirit  of  the  institution,  in  order  to 
maintain  therein  the  right  of  free  inquiry  and,  perhaps,  prepare  in 
this  way  the  return  of  England  to  religious  unity,  but,  this  time,  by 
means  of  liberty  and  progress? 

This  reasoning  does  not  lack  a  certain  force  and  the  conception  it 
involves  is  not  without  grandeur,  although  it  finds  no  place  for  the 

he  is  a  man  most  wonderful.  ...  It  (the  Bible)  touches  on  every  science,  is 
wholly  unscientific,  yet  has  never  been  proved  in  error." — These  short  extracts 
suffice  to  denote  the  position  Mr.  Reynolds  occupies.  His  book,  indeed,  though 
rich  in  the  best  materials  and  marked  by  great  inspirational  power,  is  by  no  means 
fitted  to  perform  the  task  it  claims  to  accomplish. 

The  third  of  the  works  alluded  to  in  this  note — The  Scientific  Obstacles  to 
Christian  Belief:  Boyle  Lectures  for  1884,  by  Canon  Curteis,  Professor  of  New 
Testament  Exegesis  in  King's  College,  London,  is  a  much  higher  order  of  produc- 
tion. Though  specially  designed  to  establish  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  and  therefore  necessarily  of  a  controversial  character,  it  is  written  with 
a  degree  of  spiritual  insight  and  philosophical  candour,  which  is  calculated  to  make 
it  the  starting-point  of  a  new  era  in  the  English  Church.  The  author  sees  that 
something  must  be  given  up,  and  he  is  willing  to  surrender  many  of  the  old  out- 
works, as  for  instance  the  necessity  for  the  belief  in  Miracles,  in  order  that  the 
citadel  of  spiritual  truth  may  be  the  more  readily  defended  and  retained.  In 
relation  to  the  sceptical  spirit  of  the  age,  his  words  are  : — "  We  possess,  on  the  one 
hand,  an  analysing,  subdividing,  restless  questioning  power  in  the  Intellect  ;  we 
have,  on  the  other  hand,  a  formative,  simplifying,  synthetic  power  in  the  Imagina- 
tion. The  movements  of  the  intellect  are  rapid,  incessant,  mordant,  disintegrating, 
and,  by  themselves,  merely  destructive.  Interminable  and  illimitable  investigation 
is  their  proper  function;  and  without  their  salutary  check  forms  of  thought  once 
established,  would  remain  eternally  fixed  ;  customs  and  dogmas  and  formulae  once 
accepted  would  refuse  all  change  and  all  purification  ....  Thus  the  work 
of  the  pure  Intellect  is  throughout  analytical  and  discriminative.  And  whenever 
weary  of  its  eternal  investigations,  it  would  pause  and  clothe  with  shapeliness  and 
beauty  its  heaps  of  crude  materials,  it  is  obliged  at  once  to  awaken  its  companion 
and  to  borrow  help  from  the  Imagination."  With  respect  to  the  question,  why 
should  "That  only  which  satisfies  the  human  mind  be  regarded  as  true?" 
Canon  Curteis  says  : — "  This,  as  everybody  knows,  is  the  standing  question  of 
Philosophy.  And  it  were  well  that  it  should  now-a-days  be  answered  out  of  hand, 
and  be  finally  laid  to  rest.  For  after  all  that  has  been  written  and  thought  and 
said  for  ages  upon  the  subject,  there  really  can  no  longer  be  any  reasonable  doubt 
about  the  answer,  nor  any  hesitation  in  affirming  plainly  that  the  human  mind  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  absolute  and  outside  truth :  that  it  is  but  a  mirror 
constructed  to  image  forth  the  universe  in  a  manner  impressive  and  useful  and 
delightful  to  us ;  and  that  its  presentment  is  relative,  not  absolute  truth.  And 
since  we  can  never  get  behind  ourselves,  cannot  see  except  with  the  eye,  nor  think 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  71 

Catholics  or  for  the  adherents  of  religious  organizations  beyond  the 
lines  of  Christianity,  such  as  Jews,  Theists,  and  Comtists.  Even  as 
early  as  the  seventeenth  century,  Chillingworth  justified  his  entrance 
into  the  Church,  by  alleging  that  it  was  sufficient  for  a  clergyman  to 
adhere  in  a  general  way  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Establishment,  and 
that  he  accepted  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  as  a  treaty  of  peace.  But 
it  is  none  the  less  true  that  if  Politics  live  by  compromises,  because 
they  depend  upon  the  accommodation  of  doctrines  to  facts,  Religion 
which  operates  exclusively  in  the  sphere  of  principle,  demands  from 
its  very  nature,  sincerity  of  conviction  and  the  logic  of  character. 

Whatever  sympathetic  feeling  may  prompt  us  to  interpret  the  con- 
stitution of  a  Church  in  the  broadest  sense,  we  must  admit  that 
neither  conscience  nor  thought  can  develop  itself  freely,  so  long  as 
they  are  constantly  coming  into  collision  with  a  compulsory  creed. 
The  situation,  indeed,  is  becoming  more  and  more  false,  within  the 
pale  of  the  Church,  for  those  who,  having  renounced  the  super- 
natural, desire  to  preach  what  they  actually  believe,  and  to  no  longer 
teach  what  they  have  ceased  to  believe.  They  are  incessantly  drawn 
on,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to  making  compromises,  which,  if  they  do 
not  lead  to  the  falsification  of  the  expression  of  thought,  none  the 
less  produce  unconscious  subtleties.  Numerous  decisions,  given  by 
the  ecclesiastical  courts,  have  shown,  moreover,  even  in  recent  days, 
that  there  are  limits  to  free  inquiry  in  the  Established  Church ;  and 
though  Bishop  Colenso  escaped  all  condemnation  for  heresy,  this 
was  due  to  a  flaw  in  ecclesiastical  legislation,  which  did  not  con- 
template having  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  the  opinions  of  a 
bishop. 

The  remedy  for  this  false  position  would  be  found  in  the  suppres- 

except  with  the  brain,  it  is  obvious  that  the  very  first  and  most  essential  act  in  all 
our  mental  work  must  be  an  act  of  pure  Faith— faith  in  the  sufficiency  of  our 
faculties,  faith  in  the  approximate  veracity  (for  all  practical  purposes)  of  our  mental 
mirror,  faith  in  the  gift  we  possess  of  interpreting  all  things  in  terms  of  our  own 
mind,  complete  in  its  triple  functions  of  Intellect,  Imagination,  and  Conscience." 
— It  is  easy  to  see  the  importance  of  this  far-reaching  principle,  both  as  regards  the 
evolution  of  religious  thought  and  the  claims  of  Scepticism.  Those  who  accept  it 
must  give  up  dogmatising  about  what  lies  beyond  the  ken  of  human  faculty,  and 
remember,  with  Mr.  Spencer,  that  all  our  conceptions  of  God,  as  the  Ultimate 
Existence,  are  merely  symbols  ;  while  the  negative  dogmatist  will  find  it  equally 
opposed  to  his  unfortunate  habit  of  measuring  the  depths  of  the  universe  by  the 
sounding-line  of  his  own  surface-bound  conceptions.  —  Translator. 


I  I  THE   PROGRESS    OF   THOUGHT 

sion  of  all  declaration  of  allegiance  to  dogmatic  Christianity.  As 
early  as  1772,  more  than  250  clergymen  and  eminent  laymen  of  the 
Church  of  England,  petitioned  Parliament  in  order  to  obtain  its  sanc- 
tion that  the  admission  to  Holy  Orders  should  not  necessitate  a  sub- 
scription to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles.  The  Episcopal  Church  of 
Ireland  entered  upon  this  permissive  course  from  the  moment  of  the 
rupture  of  its  relations  with  the  State,  by  suppressing  obligatory 
adherence  to  the  damnatory  clauses  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  The 
Episcopal  Church  of  America  has  gone  a  step  further  than  this  by 
omitting  the  creed  in  question  from  its  liturgy.  Hence  it  may  be 
confidently  stated,  that  the  disappearance  of  the  creed  at  present 
implied  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  is  simply  a  matter  of  time.1  The 
only  question  is  whether  this  reform  will  take  place  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Establishment,  that  is,  the  dissolution  of  the  bond  which 
unites  the  Church  to  the  State  :  and  here  we  come  to  another  of  the 
principal  problems  which  the  present  condition  of  Anglicanism  pre- 
sents. 

The  official  status  of  the  Established  Church  was  calculated,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  to  provoke  attack  from  both  Dissenters  and  Free- 
thinkers. Some  forty  years  ago,  this  opposition  assumed  the  form  of 
an  Anti-State  Church  Association,  which  has  become  to-day  the  Society 
for  Liberating  Religion  from  State  control,  or  simply  the  Liberation 
Society.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  agitation  for  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State  has  lost  something  of  its  intensity  since  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  privileges  of  the  Anglican  Church,  with  regard  to 
marriages,  funerals  and  public  education.  Still  political  circumstances 
may,  at  any  moment,  give  a  new  impulse  to  this  movement,  and  it  is 
very  doubtful  whether  even  the  Abolition  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles 
would  prevent  its  final  triumph ;  for  if  the  Establishment  became 
broad  enough  to  embrace  all  the  sects  of  Protestantism,  it  would  even 
then  be  questionable  whether  they  would  consent  to  enter  it.2 

1.  The  Inquirer  of  the  31st  of  March,  1883,  stated  that  a  parish  meeting  of  St. 
James's  (West  Derby),  had  just  previously  passed  a  resolution  requesting  the  minister 
to  no  longer  recite  the  Athanasian  Creed  during  the  services,  and  pledging  them- 
selves to  pay  the  costs  of  any  prosecution  which  might  be  undertaken  against  him. 

2.  There  are  many  thoughtful  men  of  liberal  tendencies  in  the  Nonconformist 
communions  who  believe  the  cause  of  truth  and  the  interests  of  civilization  would  be 
far  better  served  by  reforming  the  Church,  and  making  it  really  National,  than  by 
destroying  it  as  an  Establishment. — Translator. 


IN    ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  73 

But  it  may  be  asked  whether  the  Episcopal  Church  would  not  have 
more  to  gain  than  to  lose  in  the  disruption  of  its  connection  with 
the  State.  It  would  doubtless  have  to  give  up  a  portion  of  the  im- 
mense wealth  which  it  monopolizes  to-day.  Still,  is  it  really  necessary 
in  order  to  preserve  the  vitality  or  even  the  prestige  of  that  Church, 
that  it  should  have  at  its  head  an  Episcopal  Body  whose  annual  in- 
come amounts  to  about  £160,000,  apportioned  to  but  little  over  thirty 
members  ?  In  England,  however,  reforms  generally  proceed  by  means 
of  compromise;  it  is,  therefore,  highly  probable  that  the  Church 
would  be  allowed  to  retain,  over  and  above  the  fabrics  themselves,  a 
part  of  its  revenues,  proportionate  to  the  number  of  its  members  and 
the  extent  of  its  requirements.  If,  moreover,  some  of  its  privileges 
should  disappear,  this  need  not  diminish  its  vitality  or  limit  its  use- 
fulness; for  in  what  respect  could  its  true  religious  interests  be 
served  by  the  maintenance  of  parochial  charges  without  congregations, 
as  in  villages  where  almost  the  entire  population  belongs  to  Noncon- 
formist communions  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  if  its  prelates  have  to  give  up  their  seats  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  if  its  liturgy  is  no  longer  allowed  to  exclusively 
figure  in  public  ceremonies,  will  not  the  Church  gain  in  return  for 
this,  an  independence,  well  worth  the  loss  of  a  certain  amount  of 
wealth  and  some  few  honours  ?  Is  it  not  an  absurd  spectacle  to  see 
its  religious  beliefs  regulated  in  the  last  resort  by  Parliament,  in  which 
there  are  Dissenters,  Catholics,  Jews  and  Agnostics,  and  where  to- 
morrow there  will  doubtless  also  be  Atheists  ? 

It  will  certainly  be  felt  as  a  hardship  after  having  been  the  Church 
of  England,  to  be  nothing  more  than  one  of  the  sects  of  English 
Protestantism.  Still  these  sects  have  shown  by  their  example  that, 
even  in  the  matter  of  faith,  liberty  is  superior  to  protection,  since  in 
spite  of  persecution,  poverty,  social  discredit  and  inferiority  of  re- 
sources and  talent,  they  have  succeeded  in  equalling,  if  not  in  sur- 
passing, by  the  number  and  activity  of  their  adherents,  the  powerful 
religious  organization  which  had,  as  the  heritage  of  its  predecessor, 
the  monopoly  of  the  higher  education,  the  patronage  of  the  ruling 
classes  and  the  support  of  public  authority.  There  exists,  moreover, 
a  fact  which  should  reassure  the  Episcopal  Church  of  England,  as  to 
the  religious   consequences  of  Disestablishment.     In  Ireland,  where 


74  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

the  Establishment  was  suppressed  on  the  ist  of  January,  1871,1  the 
Episcopal  Church,  which  numbered  only  1 1  '9  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion, had  increased  by  the  end  of  1880  to  12-3  per  cent,  or  635,670 
members,  the  entire  number  of  inhabitants  being  estimated  in  1881 
at  5,I59>839  persons. 

The  part  which  the  Established  Church  has  not  succeeded  in  play- 
ing among  the  lower  classes  has  devolved  chiefly  upon  the  Dissenting 
sects,  born  of  the  anti-dogmatic  and  anti-formalist  inspiration  which 
constitutes  the  popular  characteristic  of  Protestantism. 

The  Methodists,  though  of  recent  origin,  form  to-day  the  most 
important  of  the  sects.  Methodism  sprang  from  the  evangelical  move- 
ment which  was  commenced  by  John  Wesley  in  1739,  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  English  Church.  Its  adherents,  who  were  estimated  at 
76,978  in  the  year  1791,  when  Wesley  died,  consist  to-day  of  about 
800,000  active  members  in  Great  Britain,  with  something  like  a 
million-and-a-half  of  children  in  its  Sunday  schools.  The  denomina- 
tion is  divided  into  several  secondary  bodies,  such  as  Wesleyans, 
Primitive  Methodists,  Methodists  of  the  New  Connexion,  United 
Methodists,  &c.  Each  of  these  organizations  is  governed  by  a  Con- 
ference, whose  members  are  elected  by  the  congregations  of  certain 
districts.  The  Methodists  are  noted  for  their  participation  in  the 
various  charitable  and  moral  agencies  carried  on  by  society,  and  they 
have  devoted  at  times  as  much  as  ^160,000  to  their  foreign  missions 
in  a  single  year. 

More  or  less  connected  with  the  Methodists  in  doctrine  and  practice 
there  is  a  considerable  group  of  congregations  which  confine  them- 
selves to  claiming  for  their  adherents  the  belief  in  the  supernatural 
Christ  of  the  Evangelists,  and  whose  members  refuse  to  accept  the 
brand  of  any  sect  whatever.  Some  of  these  are  simply  registered  as 
"  Unsectarians,"  or  as  "  Christians  owning  no  name  but  that  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,"  or  again  as   "Christians  who  object  to  be  otherwise 

1.  In  consequence  of  the  measure  passed  in  1869  for  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Ireland,  the  State  has  resumed  possession  of  all  the  property 
and  revenue  which  it  had  conceded  to  that  Church ;  but  it  left  to  it  all  the  endow- 
ments which  had  been  the  result  of  private  generosity  since  1660.  And  further,  it 
guaranteed  to  the  actual  holders  of  ecclesiastical  preferments  an  annual  sum  for  life, 
equal  to  the  income  previously  derived  from  their  office.  Almost  all  the  recipients 
capitalized  this  annuity  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  which  thus  found  itself  in  possession 
of  a  part  of  its  old  resources. 


IN    ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  75 

designated."  The  same  spirit  prevails  in  the  numerous  revivals  which 
at  times  end  in  the  creation  of  new  sects,  but  which,  as  a  rule,  respect 
the  denominational  connections  of  those  who  temporarily  take  part  in 
their  proceedings.  Such  is  also  equally  the  case  with  the  Salvation 
Army,  which  draws  its  adherents  from  among  the  least  educated  in 
the  sects  which  are  possessed  of  an  evangelical  tendency,  and  from 
among  a  similar  class  who,  as  "  unbelievers,"  are  beyond  the  pale  of 
all  the  sects.1 

The  English  Baptists  are  neither  less  popular  nor  less  active  than 
the  Methodists.  They  claim  to  number  a  million  of  adherents  in  the 
denomination,  about  298,900  of  whom  have  submitted  to  the  rite  of 
baptism.  This  rite  they  restrict  to  adults  and  administer  by  immersion, 
as  the  reader  may  be  aware.  They  are  the  historical  representatives 
of  the  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  they  even  claim  a 
direct  connection  with  the  Apostolic  churches  by  means  of  the 
Vaudois,  the  Cathari,  the  Paulicians,  the  Donatists,  the  Novatians, 
the  Montanists,  and  the  Euchites  of  the  second  century.  Still  their 
principal  development  dates  merely  from  the  last  century.  They 
boast  that  they  are  the  only  sect  which  has  been  persecuted  every- 
where, but  has  itself  persecuted  nowhere.  Their  churches,  which 
number  over  3,500  in  Great  Britain,  are  independent  of  each  other. 
They  have  in  their  Sunday  schools  401,517  children,  and  spend  on 
an  average  ^200,000  per  annum  in  missionary  and  benevolent  efforts. 
It  is  from  their  body  that  the  first  Foreign  Protestant  Missions  sprang. 
This  was  in  1792.  In  theological  opinions  they  are  less  rigid  than 
the  Methodists ;  Arminianism  prevails  in  a  great  number  of  their 
churches,  Calvinism  in  perhaps  a  still  larger  number,  while  a  few 
border  on  Socinian  and  Unitarian  doctrines. 

The  Presbyterians  and  the  Independents,  who  are  the  representatives 
of  the  old  Calvinistic '  Puritanism,  have  not  increased  in  the  same 
proportion  as  several  of  the  other  communions.  In  Scotland,  Presby- 
terianism  is  the  Established  form  of  religion,2  but  in  England  the 

1.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Salvation  Army  held  in  London  during  the 
month  of  May,  1883,  "General"  Booth  stated  that  the  Army  comprised  about  a 
million-and-a-half  of  members,  divided  into  491  different  corps.  The  annual  revenue 
of  the  organization  amounted  to  more  than  ^120,000.  During  the  meeting  in  ques- 
tion, a  sum  of  ^10,000  was  subscribed. 

2.  A  secession  from  the  official  Church  (the  Kirk  of  Scotland)  took  place  in 
1843,  which  led  to  the  formation  of  a  Free  Church  (the  Free  Kirk).     This  latter 


76  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

denomination  possesses  only  275  congregations,  with  56,099  members. 
In  Ireland,  on  the  other  hand,  it  forms  one  of  the  most  extended 
Protestant  sects,  for  it  possesses  there  485,503  adherents. 

Presbyterianism  is  essentially  Calvin istic  in  its  organization  and  in 
its  doctrines.  Each  of  its  congregations  is  under  the  charge  of  a 
minister,  who  is  assisted  by  elders.  The  congregations  of  certain 
defined  districts  are  governed  by  Presbyteries,  which  are  assemblies 
formed  of  the  ministers  of  the  district,  and  of  a  layman  for  each 
parish.  The  Presbyteries  in  turn,  are  united  into  Provincial  Synods ; 
and  these  latter  again  are  subordinate  to  a  General  Assembly,  com- 
posed on  the  same  principle,  that  is  partly  of  ecclesiastics  and  partly 
of  laymen.  Presbyterian  worship  is  distinguished,  especially  in  Scot- 
land by  its  baldness  :  there  is  no  organ,  no  liturgy,  no  altar,  no  eccle- 
siastical robes  and  no  religious  emblems.  The  churches,  which  are 
devoid  of  all  architectural  and  artistic  adornment,  look  like  mere 
assembly  rooms.  In  England,  however,  the  Presbyterians  tend  more 
and  more  to  deviate  from  the  old  rigidity,  both  as  regards  the  form 
and  the  substance  of  worship. 

The  Congregationalists,  who  are  the  historical  descendants  of 
the  old  Independents,  differ  from  the  Presbyterians  in  but  little  more 
than  the  absolute  autonomy  of  their  churches.  Their  ministers  have 
no  need  of  special  ordination ;  any  person  who  is  invited  by  a  con- 
gregation secures  through  this  choice  the  right  of  preaching  and 
administering  the  sacraments.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
Congregational  churches  are  connected  by  an  organization,  consisting 
of  delegates,  and  known  as  the  Congregational  U?iion  ;  but  this  asso- 
ciation exercises  no  authority  over  the  individual  congregations.  It  has 
no  other  object,  indeed,  than  to  facilitate  an  interchange  of  opinion 
and  to  organize  common  action  among  the  churches  for  philanthropical 
and  kindred  purposes.  The  Congregationalists  possess  in  Great  Britain 
14  colleges  for  the  education  of  their  ministers  and  4,158  places  of 
worship. 

holds  the  same  principles  and  adopts  the  same  organization  as  the  official  Church ; 
it  merely  rejects  the  right  of  patronage,  which  at  the  time  of  the  secession  still 
existed  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  the  advantage  of  certain  feudal  proprietors. 
To-day,  in  both  Churches  alike,  every  congregation  posseses  the  right  of  choosing 
its  own  ministers  from  among  regularly  ordained  candidates.  It  may  be  worth 
noting  that  the  secession  just  mentioned  has  greatly  weakened  the  principle  of  union 
between  the  Church  and  the  State ;  it  is  quite  possible,  indeed,  that  the  disestablish- 
ment of  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  not  far  distant. 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  77 

Passing  over  the  Unitarians,  of  whom  we  shall  speak  further  on, 
we  come  to  the  Quakers,  or  Society  of  Friends,  with  17,977  members; 
the  Swedenborgians,  or  New  Jerusalem  Church,  with  64  congrega- 
tions and  4,987  registered  adherents;  the  Moravian  Brethren,  with 
32  Chapels  and  about  5,000  members;  the  Irvingites,  with  19  Churches; 
the  Adventists,  who  are  looking  for  the  second  coming  of  Christ ;  the 
Universalists,  who  believe  in  the  final  salvation  of  all  men ;  the  Ply- 
mouth Brethren,  who  claim  to  form  the  sole  Church  of  God ;  the 
Christadelphians,  who  deny  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  well  as 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  who  look  for  an  early  re-establish- 
ment of  a  divine  kingdom  at  Jerusalem ;  the  Sandemanians,  or 
Glassites,  who  give  each  other  the  holy  kiss  in  their  worship;  the 
Peculiar  People,  who  have  gained  a  notoriety  by  refusing  to  take 
precautionary  measures  for  the  prevention  of  epidemics,  and  even  to 
call  in  the  aid  of  a  doctor  when  their  children  are  ill ;  the  Mormons, 
or  Latter-Day  Saints,  who,  according  to  Whitaker's  Almanack^  possess 
82  places  of  worship  in  Great  Britain ;  and,  finally,  to  make  use  of 
the  official  terms  of  the  Census,  "  the  believers  in  the  divine  visitation 
of  Johanna  Southcote,  the  Prophetess  of  Exeter,"  without  reckoning 
the  not  less  eccentric,  but  more  ephemeral,  sects  which  are  born  and 
die  almost  every  day. 

But  though  all  these  denominations  look  upon  themselves  as  Pro- 
testant Dissenters,  they  play  for  the  most  part  but  a  very  subordinate 
role  in  the  bosom  of  Nonconformity.  This  must  be  studied  in  the 
Calvinistic  and  Evangelical  communions,  which  represent  the  Puritan 
tradition.  It  will  then  be  seen  to  possess  both  the  merits  and  the 
defects  which  I  have  already  spoken  of  as  the  characteristics  of  the 
Low  Church  party  :  great  strictness  of  life,  philanthropy  of  the  most 
developed  kind,  an  extreme  distrust  of  sacerdotal  intrusion,  with  a 
keen  sense  of  personal  independence  and  of  religious  equality;  but  at 
the  same  time,  a  narrow  view  of  life,  a  studied  aversion  of  all  scien- 
tific progress  opposed  to  the  claims  of  orthodoxy,  slavery  to  the  letter 
of  the  Bible,  an  exaggerated  sense  of  sin  and  a  tendency  to  look  at 
the  gloomy  side  of  religion.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  Noncon- 
formists constitute  in  politics  the  great  bulk  of  Liberal  electors,  and 
that  this  suffices  to  explain  the  opposition  which  has  been  offered, 
even  under  the  most  progressive  Government,  to  every  attempt  to 


78  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT 

encroach  upon  the  legal  observation  of  the  Sunday,  even  when  it  is 
merely  a  question  of  opening  picture  galleries  and  museums. 

Still  even  the  most  rigidly  orthodox  of  the  sects  have  not  been  able 
to  remain  absolutely  uninfluenced  by  the  progressive  thought  of  the 
age.  Here  is  Dr.  Martineau's  testimony  to  this  fact,  as  expressed  in 
1876  : — 1  "Without  any  loss  of  the  fervour  and  spiritual  depth  of  an 
earlier  age  and  with  unabated  resort  to  scriptural  imagery  and  expres- 
sion, their  foremost  ministers  no  longer  speak  in  the  sense  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  They  have  put  new  wine  into  the  old  bottles  and  the 
bursting  has  yet  to  come.  There  have  been  occasionally  instances 
of  avowed  theological  change  .  .  .  and  occasional  explosions  of 
frightened  conservatism  ....  But  these  conspicuous  examples 
afford  no  measure  of  the  silent  movement  which  is  shifting  the  whole 
body  into  a  different  stratum  of  the  theological  atmosphere,  and  lessen- 
ing the  interval  between  the  Puritan  and  the  Rationalist  modes  of 
religious  thought."  We  have  ourselves  stated  above  in  the  language 
of  the  Christian  Standard  that  the  organs  of  orthodoxy  recognise 
the  same  fact,  while  deploring  its  existence. 

There  is  not  a  denomination  with  whom  belief  in  the  miraculous 
is  not  declining.  Even  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  form  no  ex- 
ception, as  shown,  of  late,  by  the  notorious  trials  for  heresy,  which 
were  instituted  against  both  ministers  and  professors  of  theology  in 
that  Church.  The  Scotch  correspondent  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Unitarian  Association  stated  in  1882  that  the  rights  of  Biblical 
criticism  were  beginning  to  be  admitted  in  the  Churches  in  Scotland. 
"  It  is  hard,"  he  adds,  "  to  resist  the  conviction  that  it  cannot  be  a 
very  distant  date,  when  by  the  consent  of  the  people,  the  'standards' 
will  be  abandoned  and  a  decided  step  be  taken  in  our  direction,  if 
not  altogether  into  our  own  position."2 

A  more  recent  circumstance  shows  that  this  opinion  was  well 
founded.  On  the  14th  of  January,  1S83,  the  Unitarian  Church,  at 
Aberdeen,  held  its  anniversary  services.  Among  the  ministers  present 
on  the  occasion,  in  addition  to  those  of  the  Unitarian  body,  were  a 
Congregationalist   and  the   Rev.  —  Macdonald,  a  minister  of  the 

1.  Introduction  to  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Tayler's  work  :  A  Retrospect  of  the  Religious 
Life  of  England,  p.  26. 

2.  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association's  Report  for  1S82. 


IN   ORTHODOX   PROTESTANTISM.  79 

Established  Presbyterian  Church.  After  an  address  by  the  Rev. 
Frank  Walters,  on  the  progress  of  Rationalism  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  the  Presbyterian  minister  addressed  the  meeting  and 
declared  that  his  Church  owed  much  to  the  Unitarians  for  having 
drawn  their  attention  to  the  practical  side  of  religion.  "  They  had 
compelled  Presbyterians,"  he  added,  "to  remember  that  whatever 
they  might  ultimately  make  out  in  the  supernatural  direction,  there 
lay  much  nearer  to  them  what  was  more  useful,  interesting  and  per- 
haps, in  the  long  run,  more  influential  in  determining  the  moral 
character  and  elevating  the  spiritual  nature,  than  the  supernatural,  and 
that  was  the  natural."  These  are  noble  and  significant  words  which 
his  Congregationalist  colleague  supported  by  saying  that  "as  year  after 
year  went  by  he  thought  less  of  theology  and  more  of  religion,"1 

This  tendency  of  the  Churches  to  approach  each  other  upon  com- 
mon ground  has  of  necessity  aided  in  softening  down  the  old  sectarian 
antagonisms,  and  has  allowed  the  various  religious  bodies  to  unite 
their  efforts  in  matters  of  general  progress,  in  which  they  are  pursuing 
the  same  end.  The  exchange  of  pulpits,  formerly  limited  to  ministers 
of  the  same  denomination,  has  now,  in  many  cases,  crossed  the 
barriers  of  sect.  Hence,  Dean  Stanley  was  seen  to  place  his  Cathedral 
at  the  disposition  of  ministers  beyond  the  pale  of  the  Anglican  com- 
munion, while  he  himself  preached  in  Presbyterian  Churches  in 
Scotland.  On  the  occasion  of  the  Congress  of  Congregational 
Churches,  held  at  Bristol  in  1882,  a  deputation  of  Anglican  ministers 
attended  to  publicly  testify,  as  they  said,  to  the  good  work  which  the 
Congregationalists  were  doing  in  the  spread  of  the  fundamental  truths 
of  the  Divine  law,  and  to  bear  witness  to  their  piety  and  zeal,  as  well 
as  to  the  ability  and  eloquence  of  their  ministers.  The  address  con- 
cluded by  an  appeal  on  behalf  of  the  fraternal  union  of  all  those  who 
are  aiming  at  the  establishment  of  the  reign  of  Christian  justice  on 
the  earth. 

Not  only  when  it  is  a  question  of  obtaining  funds  to  aid  in  the 
alleviation  of  some  great  public  misfortune,  or  to  organize  a  crusade 
against  intemperance  and  misery,  are  the  leaders  of  the  different 
Churches  to  be  seen  exercising  their  influence  in  common  efforts; 
but  even  in  matters  relating  exclusively  to  forms  of  faith  they  none  of 

1.   The  Inquirer,  of  January  27th,  1883. 


80  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THOUGHT,  ETC. 

them  hold,  as  in  the  recent  persecution  of  the  Jews  in  Russia,  when 
they  did  not  hesitate  to  unite  in  promoting  a  charitable  manifestation, 
which  was  a  genuine  protest  of  the  public  conscience  against  the 
religious  intolerance  of  a  past  age.1  Even  some  years  earlier  than 
this,  on  the  initiation  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  a  large  number  of 
Nonconformist  ministers  signed  an  address  conjointly  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  to  protest,  in  the  name  of  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  against  the  persecutions  which  the  Swedish  Government 
was  inflicting  upon  the  Roman  Catholics  of  that  country. 

Would  it  be  safe  to  conclude  from  all  this  that  the  various  sects  of 
British  Protestantism  are  on  the  eve  of  uniting  on  a  common  religious 
platform,  as  they  have  already  done  in  the  domain  of  philanthropic 
and  moral  effort?  This  is  very  doubtful.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  Nonconformist  Churches,  as  much,  or  perhaps  even  more  than 
in  the  Established  Church,  creeds  remain  an  obstacle  to  the  complete 
emancipation  of  conscience  and  thought.  There  is,  indeed,  especially 
among  the  Independents  and  the  Presbyterians,  a  few  congregations 
whose  trust  deed  simply  states  its  object  to  be  "  the  worship  of  God 
after  the  manner  of  Dissenters."  Still,  speaking  generally  of  the 
Protestant  denominations,  the  Unitarian  Church,  as  will  be  seen  in 
the  following  chapter,  is  the  only  religious  body  which  has  fully  and 
officially  broken  down  all  the  barriers  to  theological  freedom. 

I .  The  requisition  presented  to  the  Lord  Mayor  asking  him  to  convene  a  meeting 
to  consider  what  means  could  be  taken  to  aid  the  persecuted  Jews,  was  signed  by 
one  archbishop  and  three  bishops  of  the  Anglican  Church,  by  several  well-known 
Nonconformist  ministers,  and  also  by  Cardinal  Newman,  Mr.  Darwin,  Professor 
Tyndall,  &c. 


CHAPTER      IV. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM. 


Correlation  between  the  history  of  Unitarianism  and  the  progress  of  free  inquiry- 
Origin  of  English  Unitarianism— Socinianism— Its  spread  in  England— First 
Unitarian  Conventicles  under  Cromwell— John  Biddle  :  his  life  and  apostolate— 
More  or  less  open  adhesion  of  Milton,  Locke,  and  Newton  to  Unitarianism — 
Commencement  of  Unitarian  worship  in  London  in  1774 — Doctrine  and  influence 
of  Priestley— Reaction  against  the  Sensational  theology — Parallel  between 
Coleridge  and  Channing— Increasing  diversity  of  theological  opinions  among  lead- 
ing Unitarians— Opposition  to  the  idea  of  a  direct  Revelation— Dr.  Martineau  and 
his  influence  on  contemporary  Unitarianism— The  point  of  contact  between  advan- 
ced Unitarians  and  pure  Theists— The  Rev.  Peter  Dean's  confession  of  faith— Uni- 
tarian Pantheists  and  evolutionists— Organization  of  Unitarian  worship— Diverg- 
ences in  its  Liturgy — Text  of  this  borrowed  from  all  kinds  of  devotional  literature 
—Unitarian  chapels— Ritualistic  Unitarianism— Nonconformist  congregations 
that  have  reached  Unitarianism — Congregations  in  a  state  of  transition — The 
attempt  to  substitute  the  term  Free  Christian  in  place  of  Unitarian :  resistance 
of  the  two  extreme  sections  of  Unitarianism— Present  statistics  of  English 
Unitarianism— The  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association— Constant  inter- 
vention of  this  society  in  favour  of  religious  liberty  and  equality— How  extreme 
variety  of  belief  and  organization  among  Unitarians  excludes  neither  unity  of 
action  nor  the  sentiment  of  spiritual  fellowship. 


The  history  of  Unitarianism  is  closely  connected  in  England  with 
the  development  of  free  inquiry.  Not  that  there  are  none  to  be  found, 
beyond  its  pale,  who  have  powerfully  aided  in  the  emancipation  of 
thought,  or  that  it  is  necessary  in  its  growth  more  than  elsewhere  to 
identify  the  progress  of  reason  with  the  varying  phases  of  Christology. 
Still,  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  whatever  form  the  doctrine  may  have 
assumed,  constitutes,  none  the  less,  the  corner-stone  of  supernatural 
Christianity,  the  central  dogma  of  the  theology  founded  on  a  special 
revelation. 

Besides,  to  reduce  Unitarianism  to  a  simple  revolt  against  the 
dogma  of  the  Trinity,  or,  indeed,  against  all  the  other  dogmas  which 
have  arisen  subsequently  to  the  appearance  of  the  Gospels,  would  be 
to  take  a  very  inadequate  view  of  its  scope  and  claims.  From  its 
origin  it  naturally  became  a  centre  of  attraction  for  minds  in  search 
of  the  most  advanced  Christian  communion  of  their  epoch,  and  these, 
in  turn,  have  re-acted  upon  its  theology,  modifying  it  according  to  the 

G 


82  ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM. 

nature  of  the  ideas  at  the  heart  of  each  successive  generation.  Thus 
the  internal  history  of  Unitarianism  has  been  but  a  continued  effort 
to  bring  Christian  tradition  into  harmony  with  the  requirements  of 
science  and  philosophy.  Even  to-day  its  essential  characteristic  is 
that  it  forms  a  Church  open  to  all  who  wish  to  pursue  the  progressive 
evolution  of  Christianity  without  let  or  hindrance. 

Successive  attempts  have  been  made  to  connect  modern  Unitari- 
anism with  the  Lollards,  who  were  in  existence  as  a  scattered  band  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation ;  with  the  Anabaptists,  whom  the  per- 
secutions of  the  sixteenth  century  caused  to  flee  from  the  Low 
Countries  into  England;  with  the  Italian  and  Spanish  Protestants, 
who  received  the  hospitality  of  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth  j1  and, 
lastly,  with  the  Socinian  publications  which  were  imported  from 
Holland  and  circulated  through  the  country  during  the  reigns  of  the 
two  first  Stuarts.  It  is  certain  that,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Henry  VIII., 
Arianism  showed  itself  in  England,  in  a  sporadic  state,  occurring  here 
and  there,  as  evidenced  by  the  Unitarian  martyrology,  published  by 
Mr.  Spears,2  and  that,  at  or  about  the  commencement  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary Wars,  there  was  an  increase  in  the  English  translations  of 
the  works  directed  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  by  the  Socinians 
of  Poland.  But  it  was  not  till  1648,  during  the  Long  Parliament, 
that  anti-Trinitarian  conventicles  were  first  held  in  London,  under  the 
presidency  of  a  heretic,  by  the  name  of  Welchman.  The  doctrine 
taught  in  them  was  to  the  effect  that  Christ  had  been  a  prophet  who 
worked  miracles  but  was  not  God.3  These  views  were  soon  adopted 
by  John  Biddle,  a  Master  of  Arts  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  a 
man  so  well  versed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible  that  he  could  recite 
from  memory  almost  the  entire  text  of  the  New  Testament.4  Accord- 
ing to  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Tayler,  Biddle  would  seem  to  have  been 
unacquainted  with  any  Socinian  works,  and  to  have  drawn  the  germs 
of  his  teaching  from  the  study  of  the  Bible  itself.  Expelled,  in  1645, 
from  St.  Mary's  pulpit  in  the  city  of  Gloucester,  he  was  subsequently 
imprisoned  in  Newgate  as  a  common  criminal,  for  the  boldness  with 

1.  J.  Bonet- Maury,  Des  Origines  du  Christianisme  Unitaire  chez  les  Anglais . 

2.  R.  Spears,  Rise  and  Progress  of  Unitarianism  in  Modern  Times,  p.  7. 

3.  Bonet-Maury,  p.  232. 

4.  J.  J.   Tayler,   A  Retrospect  of  the  Religious  Life  of  England,  2nd  Edit., 
p.  221. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM.  83 

which  he  defended  his  opinions  before  the  ecclesiastical  commission 
appointed  to  examine  into  the  charge  of  heresy  preferred  against  him. 
But  even  from  his  prison  cell  he  found  the  means  to  publish  two 
treatises  against  the  Divinity  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
Parliament,  then  under  the  influence  of  the  Presbyterians,  condemned 
these  works  to  the  flames,  and  passed  a  statute  which,  among  other 
pains  and  penalties  directed  against  blasphemy,  made  the  denial  of 
the  Trinity  a  capital  offence. 

Still,  even  then,  the  last  word  was  not  uttered  in  the  struggle  between 
a  single  modest  thinker  and  the  allied  forces  of  Church  and  State.  No 
sooner  had  the  amnesty,  granted  by  Cromwell  in  1652,  with  the  support 
of  the  Independents,  opened  the  doors  of  Newgate  to  Biddle,  than  he 
hastened  to  hold  private  meetings  every  Sunday,  in  which,  Bible  in 
hand,  he  taught  his  doctrine.  Hence  Cromwell  had  him  banished  to 
the  Scilly  Isles ;  but  it  should  be  added,  in  justice  to  the  Protector, 
that  he  caused  means  to  be  secretly  forwarded  to  him,  and  that  at 
last  he  allowed  him  to  return  into  England.  Biddle,  however,  simply 
made  use  of  this  toleration  to  resume  the  work  of  his  apostolate. 
Arrested  a  third  time,  after  the  Restoration,  for  an  illegal  act  of 
worship,  he  died  in  prison  during  the  year  1662,  at  the  age  of  47. 

In  common  with  all  martyrs  of  a  just  cause,  Biddle  left  behind  him 
numerous  followers,  among  whom  was  his  successor  at  Gloucester, 
the  Rev.  J.  Cooper.  Driven  in  turn  from  his  office,  and  shut  out  from 
the  English  Church  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  Cooper  organized,  the 
very  year  after  Biddle's  death,  a  congregation  at  Cheltenham,  to 
which  he  ministered  for  twenty  years.1  In  London,  thanks  to  the 
efforts  of  Thomas  Firman,  a  rich  merchant,  who  was  entirely  devoted 
to  Socinian  ideas,  although  he  had  not  broken  with  the  Established 
Church,  the  Unitarians  maintained  a  centre  of  action  which  was  kept 
up  without  any  serious  persecution  through  the  latter  years  of  the 
reigns  of  the  Stuarts.2 

The  general  toleration  which  James  the  Second  sought  to  establish 
in  the  interest  of  the  Catholics,  naturally  proved  beneficial  to  all  the 
proscribed  sects,  the  Unitarians  included.  Still,  it  was  necessary  that 
a  long  time  should  pass  before  their  doctrines  could  be  openly  pro- 
claimed.    Even  the  Revolution  of  1688,   which  granted  liberty  of 

1.  Spears,  Op.  Cit,  p.  21. 

2.  Tayler,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  229. 


84  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

conscience  to  Nonconformists,  by  an  Act  that  Mr.  Lecky  does  not 
hesitate  to  speak  of  as  the  Magna  Charta  of  religious  liberty,  made  a 
formal  exception  of  all  who  recognised  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and 
those  who  did  not  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

So  great  was  the  strength  of  prejudice  in  this  matter,  that  men  like 
Milton,  Locke,  and  Newton  left  the  avowal  of  their  Unitarian  convic- 
tions to  posterity.1  The  manuscript  of  the  Doctrina  Christiana,  in 
which  Milton  demonstrates  that,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  "the 
father  of  Our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  God,"  remained  buried 
in  the  archives  of  England  till  1823.  Locke  again  refrained  from 
publishing  his  Adversaria  Theologica  during  his  own  lifetime,  and 
when  accused  of  Socinianism  by  Dr.  Edwards,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  "  the  Apostles  Creed  is  no  more  Socinian  than  I  am."  As 
to  Newton,  at  the  moment  when  his  Exposition  of  Two  Notable  Alter- 
ations of  Scripture  was  about  to  be  printed  in  Holland,  he  suddenly 
countermanded  it,  for  fear  that  his  authorship  should  be  discovered, 
in  spite  of  the  veil  of  anonymity  he  had  intended  to  throw  around  it. 

This,  however,  was  the  epoch  in  which  the  writings  of  the  Deist 
Woolston  against  the  miracles  of  Christ  sold  to  the  extent  of  30,000 
copies.  It  is  true  that  Woolston  lost  his  position  as  a  Fellow  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  that  he  was  condemned  by  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench,  and  thrown  into  prison,  as  he  had  not  wherewith  to 
pay  the  fine.  But  speaking  generally,  it  was  a  more  dangerous  thing 
to  preach  the  Christianity  of  Socinianism  than  to  spread  the  doctrines 
of  the  Deists  or  even  of  the  Atheists,  for  this  excellent  reason  that 
the  latter  were  published  simply  as  philosophical  opinions,  whilst 
Unitarianism  aimed  directly  at  the  transformation  of  the  current  re- 
ligious beliefs.  In  short,  the  Unitarians  owed,  if  not  official  recogni- 
tion, at  least  the  public  toleration  of  their  worship,  to  the  indirect 
action  of  the  development  of  Latitudinarian  and  Arminian  tendencies, 
in  the  bosom  of  the  English  Church. 

The  second  chapel  in  which  worship  was  oganized  with  a  Unitarian 
liturgy,  was  opened  in  London  in  1774,  in  spite  of  the  penal  enact- 
ments which  still  threatened  the  promulgation  of  anti-trinitarian 
doctrines,  and  which  remained  on  the  statute  book  till  18 13.  This 
congregation  was  originated  by  the  Rev.  Theophilus  Lindsey,  who 
had  voluntarily  given  up  his  clerical  position  in  the  Established  Church. 
1.  J.  Bonet-Maury,  Op.  Cit.,  pp.  2^5,  &c. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM.  85 

Then  again,  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  characterized 
by  a  considerable  extension  of  Unitarianism,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Priestley,  who  wrote  numerous  works  to  prove,  on  the  authority 
of  the  Bible,  the  exclusively  human  nature  of  Jesus.  Unhappily, 
his  sympathy  for  the  French  Revolution  marked  him  out  as  an  object 
of  popular  hatred,  and  in  1794  he  was  driven  to  seek  a  place  of  exile 
in  America,  without  foreseeing  that  the  time  would  come  when  a 
statue  would  be  raised  to  his  memory,  in  that  very  town  of  Birming- 
ham where  the  crowd  had  pillaged  his  house  and  scattered  his 
congregation. 

There  is  to  be  observed  in  the  ideas  of  Protestantism  respecting 
the  nature  of  Christ,  an  evolution  analogous  to  the  one  I  have  pointed 
out  in  the  efforts  of  the  Puritans  to  reach  the  primitive  constitution 
of  the  Church.  On  the  morrow  of  the  Reformation,  the  dogma  of 
the  Divinity  of  Christ  began  to  move,  in  an  opposite  direction,  along 
the  lines  it  had  followed  in  its  formation.  Calvin,  indeed,  as  M. 
Albert  Reville  has  shown,  by  insisting  upon  the  humanity  of  Jesus, 
had  in  a  certain  sense  paved  the  way  for  a  denial  of  his  divinity.1 

Christ  soon  becomes  for  Servetus,  what  he  had  previously  been  for 
Arius,  exclusively  the  Divine  Word,  a  sort  of  Demiurgus,  the  first- 
born of  the  creation.  The  Socinians  make  of  him  no  more  than  a 
man,  but  a  man  miraculously  conceived  and  ultimately  associated  in 
the  Divine  Majesty.  Even  Biddle  admits  that  a  sort  of  subordinate 
worship  may  be  rendered  to  Christ,  while  at  the  same,  time  he  denies 
his  right  to  divine  honours.  In  the  eyes  of  Priestley,  Jesus  is  simply 
the  Messiah,  a  special  messenger  of  God,  with  supernatural  power ; 
and  it  is  this  interpretation  which  he  seeks  to  establish  by  an  appeal 
to  the  text  of  Scripture.  Meanwhile,  the  day  was  to  ultimately  dawn 
in  which  more  advanced  reformers  would  take  from  the  founder  of  the 
Christian  religion  the  privilege  of  a  supernatural  origin,  and  even  the 
special  office  of  mediator  between  God  and  man,  in  order  to  leave  him 
simply  the  glory  of  his  moral  and  religious  influence. 

Priestley  was  profoundly  convinced  that  the  testimony  of  history 
established  the  validity  of  Revelation,  and  it  is  on  this  belief,  as  a 
faithful  disciple  of  Locke  and  Hartley,  that  he  bases  his  entire  religious 
system.  "  If  there  be  any  truth  in  history,"  he  wrote  in  his  Essay  on 
the  Inspiration  of  Christ,  "  Christ  wrought  unquestionable  miracles, 
1.  Albert  Reville,  Histoire  du  Dogme  de  la  Diviniti  de  Jesus  Christ,  p.  133. 


00  ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM. 

as  a  proof  of  his  mission  from  God ;  he  preached  the  great  doctrine 
of  the  Resurrection  from  the  dead,  he  raised  several  persons  from  a  state 
of  death,  and,  what  was  more,  he  himself  died  and  rose  again  in  con- 
firmation of  his  doctrine.  The  belief  of  these  facts  I  call  the  belief 
of  Christianity."  This  reasoning  was  in  perfect  conformity  with  the 
Rationalism  of  the  period;  but  its  adoption  by  the  majority  of  Uni- 
tarian theologians  contributed  not  a  little  to  establish  that  reputation  for 
coldness  and  lack  of  religious  fervour,  which  was  so  long  true  of 
English  Unitarianism. 

The  reaction  came  from  America,  where  the  writings  of  Channing 
had  played  in  the  Unitarian  Church  the  same  part  which  those  of 
Coleridge  performed  in  Anglican  theology.  Both,  in  short,  the  one 
guided  by  his  veneration  of  conscience  and  the  other  by  the  tenden- 
cies of  German  philosophy,  set  the  religious  importance  of  the  human 
soul  in  a  new  light,  and  awoke  in  their  fellows  the  sentiment  of  moral 
responsibility  with  the  idea  of  free  will,  then  more  or  less  compromised 
by  the  requirements  of  the  theology  of  the  Sensational  school.  But 
while  the  latter  applied  all  the  resources  of  the  new  method  to  repair 
the  breaches  of  orthodoxy,  the  former  used  them  to  establish  that 
distinction  between  religion  and  theology,  which  could  alone  enable 
liberal  Christianity  to  bear  the  blows  of  modern  criticism  with  impu- 
nity, and  which  has  assured  the  future  of  Unitarianism  by  giving  it 
the  character  of  an  indefinitely  progressive  doctrine.1  Both  admitted 
the  infallibility  of  the  Bible,  with  the  consequences  which  flow  from 
this,  as  to  the  nature  and  the  office  of  Jesus.  But  whilst  the  English 
theologian  tried  to  diminish,  by  a  subtle  interpretation,  the  difficulties 
which  this  admission  presented  to  the  most  advanced  minds  of  his 
Church,  the  American  divine  made  them  a  matter  of  individual 
judgment,  and  sought  the  basis  of  religious  communion  beyond  the 
pale  of  all  creeds.  From  Channing,  indeed,  dates  that  increasing 
diversity  of  theological  convictions  in  the  Unitarian  body  which  might 
scandalize  those  in  love  with  doctrinal  uniformity,  but  which  none  the 
less  forms  the  peculiar  characteristic  and  the  strength  of  the  Unitarian 
Church  of  to-day. 

As  early  as  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  face  of  the 
school  which  adhered  to  the  theology  of  Priestley,  and  which  persisted 
in  seeing  in  the  miraculous  elements  of  the  Bible  the  keystone  to  the 

I.  James  Martineau,  The  Three  Stages  of  Unitarian  Theology.     London,  18S2. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM. 


87 


whole  Christian  edifice,  there  gradually  sprang  up  a  generation  of 
'  Unitarians  who  preferred  seeking  the  source  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
and  even  the  claims  of  Christianity  itself,  in  the  moral  commands  of 
conscience  and  in  the  native  aspirations  of  the  soul.  Regarding  the 
Bible  as  a  special  depository  of  religious  truth,  and  Jesus  as  the  chosen 
of  God  for  the  spiritual  salvation  of  humanity,  this  new  school  soon 
began  to  attach  but  a  secondary  importance  to  the  external  proofs  of 
Revelation  ;  and,  consequently,  it  was  able  to  sacrifice  .the  letter  of  the 
Biblical  narrative,  without  any  unreasonable  opposition,  when  this 
began  to  receive  a  formal  rejection,  either  on  the  part  of  science  or 
historical  criticism.  Up  to  this  time  its  adherents  had  declined  to 
deny,  in  general  and  a  priori,  the  occurrence  of  miracles.  But  in 
proportion  as  the  double  critical  and  scientific  current  of  modern  ideas 
became  distinct,  views  were  seen  to  develop  themselves,  ramong  the 
principal  interpreters  of  Unitarianism,  which  excluded  the  possibility 
of  a  Divine  intervention  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  sub- 
jected Christianity  itself  to  the  general  laws  of  religious  evolution. 

To-day,  the  Priestley  school  has  almost  disappeared.  The  moderate 
position  which  Dr.  Martineau  occupied  thirty  years  ago,1  has  become 
the  extreme  right  of  the  Unitarian  Church;  he  himself,  although 
maintaining  the  unique  character  of  the  Christian  Revelation,  and  the 
absolute  superiority  of  its  Founder,  has  long  since  adopted  the 
opinion  that  the  Divine  Action  must  be  exclusively  sought  in  the 
regular  course  of  natural  law,  the  progressive  development  of  history 
and  the  native  aspirations  of  the  soul.2  For  the  left  wing  of  Unitari- 
anism, Jesus  is  only  a  product  of  his  age  and  country,  greatly  superior 
to  his  contemporaries  by  the  elevation  of  his  sentiments,  and  admirably 
inspired  by  a  love  of  humanity,  but,  at  the  same  time,  subject  to  all 
the  limitations  of  our  nature  and  a  member,  in  short,  of  the  same 
family  to  which  all  the  celebrated  reformers  of  history  belong. 

This  point  of  view  is  absolutely  identical  with  that  of  the  "Theists" 
who,  long  isolated  in  religious  society,  have  thus  found  themselves 
occupying  common  ground  with  the  advanced  lines  of  Unitarianism. 
Professor  F.   W.   Newman,  for  instance,  who,  for  more  than  thirty 

1.  Ch.  de  Remusat,  Les  Controverses  religien'ses  en  Angleterre  in  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes  of  ist  of  January,  1S59. 

2.  James  Martineau,  Loss  and  Gain  in  Recent  Theology  (London,  1881),  and 
The  Three  Stages  of  Unitarian  Theology. 


88  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

years  was  in  opposition  to  every  sect  of  Christianity,  the  Unitarians 
included,  owing  to  his  persistent  denial  of  the  revealed  character  of 
the  Bible  and  the  necessity  of  a  Mediator,  naturally  found  a  place 
marked  out  for  him  in  the  ranks  of  Unitarianism,  as  soon  as  that 
communion  no  tonger  refused  to  identify  itself  with  confessions  of 
faith  similar  to  the  following,  which  the  Rev.  Peter  Dean  formulated 
before  the  Unitarian  congregation,  at  Clerkenwell,  in  1875  :— "Faith 
in  an  infinitely  perfect  God  is  all  our  Theology.     The  Universe  is 
our   Divine   Revelation.     The   Manifestations   of    Nature   and   the 
Devotional  Literature  of  all  Times  and  Peoples,  are  our  Bible.     .     . 
The  goodness  incarnated  in  humanity  is  our  Christ.     Every  guide 
and  helper  is  our  Saviour.     Increasing  personal  holiness  is  our  salva- 
tion.   The  normal  wonders  of  Nature  are  our  Miracles.    .    .    Love  to 
God  and  love  to  man — piety  and  morality — are  our  only  sacraments."1 
What  Freethinker,  however  feeble  his  belief  in  God  and  his  faith 
in  progress,  could  refuse  to  sign  such  a  declaration  of  principles  as 
this,  if  he  found  himself  in  consequence  placed  in  a  better  position 
to  aid  in  the  reconciliation  of  the  religious  sentiment  with  reason? 
There  is  no  room  for  surprise  that  it  was  by  a  sermon  delivered  in  the 
Clerkenwell  Chapel,  in  1875,  that  Professor  Newman  explained  the 
reasons  for  his  entrance  into  the  Unitarian  body.     He  was  received, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  with  open  arms  and,  since  1878,  his  name  has 
figured  in  the  list  of  the  Vice-Presidents  of  trie  British  and  Foreign 
Unitarian  Association. 

Still  more  advanced,  there  exists  a  group  of  young  ministers  of 
ability  who  profess  a  sort  of  idealistic  Pantheism,  borrowed  either 
from  the  ideas  of  Strauss  or  from  the  writings  of  Herbert  Spencer. 
Their  attitude  towards  the  Christian  tradition  is  almost  identical  with 
that  of  the  Theists.  But  they  prefer  to  simply  see  in  God  a 
mysterious  and  indefinable  Power,  who  is  working  for  the  realization 
of  order  and  justice  in  the  world.  Some  of  them  go  so  far  as  to 
state  that  the  object  of  religion,  as  they  conceive  of  it,  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  human  ideal,  and  that  it  is  this  ideal  they  render  divine  in 
order  to  bow  before  it  in  adoration.  Thus  the  gamut  of  the  philo- 
sophical  opinions   represented   in   Unitarian   theology  is  complete, 

1.  Clerkenwell  Unitarian  Church.  The  Minister's  Religions  Principles,  an 
appendix  to  a  Sermon  by  Professor  F.  W.  Newman,  Sin  Against  God.  London : 
Triibner,  1875. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM.  89 

extending,  as  it  does,  from  a  semi-orthodox  Socinianism  to  the  con- 
fines of  the  religion  of  humanity  according  to  the  Gospel  of  Comte. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  the  progress  of  this  evolution  has  not 
developed  signs  of  declining  fervour  or  of  lassitude,  which  began  to 
reveal  themselves  in  the  religious  attitude  of  Unitarianism  a  third  of 
a  century  ago  :  that  is  to  say,  at  the  time  when  the  mass  of  Unitarians 
still  shared  the  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible  and  the  miracu- 
lous power  of  Christ.  In  reply  to  this  question,  I  shall  quote  a  passage 
from  a  sermon,  delivered  on  the  14th  of  June,  1883,  by  the  Rev.  R. 
A.  Armstrong,  before  the  members  of  the  Western  Christian  Union.1 
After  having  admitted  that  the  progress  of  Biblical  criticism  in  England 
during  the  last  twenty-five  years  had  stripped  Christianity  of  all  its  old 
supernatural  claims,  he  remarked  that,  at  first  sight,  this  critical  work 
could  not  fail  to  seem  calculated  to  destroy  the  importance  still 
accorded  by  Unitarians  to  the  Biblical  narrative  and  to  the  person  of 
Christ.  Still,  he  continued,  "  The  result  has  wholly  falsified  all  such 
gloomy  anticipations.  Not  destruction,  but  reconstruction,  has  been 
the  upshot  of  all  this  ferment.  The  Bible  had  ceased  to  interest. 
There  was  not  the  ring  of  truth  in  the  way  it  was  interpreted.  We 
have  faced  the  facts  now.  We  have  seen  the  true  upgrowth  of  the 
marvellous  literature  which  we  did  not  understand  before.  .  •  . 
And  so  the  Bible  has  come  to  be  the  most  interesting  of  all  histories, 
and  we  feel  the  movement  of  God  through  it  all ;  and  understand  how, 
through  error  and  folly  and  sin,  He  trains  the  nations  up  in  the  great 
school  of  our  common  humanity.  We  no  longer  call  the  Bible  a 
supernatural  Revelation,  or  give  it  any  official  or  miraculously  authori- 
tative position  ;  but  we  like  it,  some  of  us  love  it ;  we  do  not  any  longer 
find  it  dull,  and  we  find  that  there  is  a  well  of  pure  waters  in  it, 
refreshing  us  to  eternal  life. 

"And  the  Christ,  he  had  lost  touch  of  us;  and  then  came  the 
critics,  and  we  thought  he  was  going  to  dissolve  into  air,  and  be  no 
more  to  us  than  the  fancy-wrought  figure  of  a  myth.  How  is  it  now  ? 
Why,  it  is  thus  : — It  is  true  we  have  dropped  many  an  old  phrase  as 
too  artificial  and  technical  for  our  use  now.  It  is  true  we  no  way  put 
Christ  between  ourselves  and  the  Father  whom  he  preached :  nothing, 


I.   R.  A.  Armstrong,  Hopes  and  Dangers  of  English  Unitarianism,  a  Sermon 
reproduced  in  the  Inquirer  of  the  30th  of  June,  1883. 


90  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

it  seems  to  us,  save  sin,  would  have  grieved  him  more.  There  are 
numbers  of  us  now  who  do  not  believe  that  he  had  any  other  entrance 
into  the  world  than  other  sons  of  honourable  and  loving  parents ;  who 
do  not  believe  that  Herod  in  Palestine  or  the  Magi  of  the  East  troubled 
themselves  one  whit  about  that  baby  boy ;  who  do  not  believe  one 
ripple  on  the  Sea  of  Galilee  was  ever  smoothed  by  magic  word  of  his, 
or  that  any  waters  bore  him  as  a  ghost  over  their  pathless  face ;  who 
do  not  believe  that  the  poor  lacerated  body,  once  dead,  thrilled  ever 
again  with  the  currents  of  fleshly  life ;  who  do  not  believe  that  his 
spirit  found  its  way  to  the  bosom  of  God  otherwise  than  those  of 
others  who  have  loved  and  served  and  perished  bravely  at  their  post. 
No ;  he  is  human  to  us  altogether ;  and  we  see  how  it  was  that  all 
those  legends  gathered  to  his  fame  out  of  the  love  and  wonder  of  the 
men  who  followed  in  his  steps.  But  for  that  very  reason  this  Jesus 
has  become  to  us  real,  vivid,  bright,  strong,  beautiful.  He  is  so  utterly 
a  brother  of  our  own.  We  can  see  the  happy  boyish  home,  the  young 
man  wistful  at  the  stern,  strange,  awakening  word  that  came  borne  on 
the  air  from  Jordan,  the  man  in  all  the  thick  and  press  of  ministry 
gasping  ever  and  anon  for  a  breath  of  lonely  prayer  on  the  mountain- 
side, the  joy  in  the  help  and  comfort  he  found  he  could  give  poor 
men  and  women,  the  sorrow  at  the  perversity  of  understanding  mani- 
fested by  so  many,  the  marvellous  union  of  strength  and  tenderness, 
of  indomitable  purpose  and  winning  courtesy,  of  passionate  yearning 
and  untroubled  calm ;  and  then  by-and-by  the  closing  in  of  the  dark- 
ness above  and  around,  and  the  lonely,  heroic,  consecrated  death. 
And  we  can  take  this  man  for  our  type  and  model  of  the  loveliest  and 
noblest  humanity  has  ever  been ;  and  we  can  love  him  with  all  our 
heart  and  soul. 

"  And  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  criticism,  the  microscopic  exami- 
nation of  the  life-nature,  the  ruthless  scientific  analysis,  which  seemed 
so  destructive  and  so  deadly,  we  should  have  been  severed  more  and 
more  from  Christ ;  the  historical  and  philosophical  difficulties  unsolved 
would  have  been  driven  as  a  solid  wedge  in  between  him  and  us ;  we 
should  have  had  no  Christ ;  and  ere  this,  Christianity  might  have  been 
to  us  a  vain  and  foolish  name."1 


I.  This  is  substantially  the  position  taken  up  recently  by  M.  Renan,  in  his  re- 
markable lecture  delivered  before  the  Societe  des  Etudes  juives  (\.  la  Revue  Polite- 
que  et  Litteraire  of  the  2nd  of  June,  1883). 


ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM.  91 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that,  under  these  circumstances,  the 
Unitarians,  like  the  members  of  the  Broad  Church  party  and  the 
liberal  Protestants  of  the  Continent,  have  taken  a  considerable  share 
in  promoting  the  progress  of  Biblical  criticism.  This  is  exceptionally 
true  of  the  Rev.  P.  H.  Wicksteed,  who  has  translated  into  English  the 
principal  works  of  the  so-called  school  of  modern  Protestantism,  which 
is  represented  with  so  much  eclat  by  Professor  Kuenen  and  his  col- 
leagues of  the  University  of  Leyden. 

The  forms  of  worship  among  Unitarians  present  the  same  diversity 
as  their  theological  opinions.  Each  congregation  determines  its  own 
mode  of  worship  as  it  thinks  best,  or  according  to  the  preferences  of 
its  minister.  The  Unitarian  Almanack  for  1883  mentions  the  exist- 
ence of  twenty-five  different  liturgies  in  use  in  the  denomination, 
without  taking  into  account  the  innovations  of  separate  congregations. 
Several  of  these  devotional  compilations  speak  the  language  of  pure 
Theism  ;  others  continue  to  employ  the  old  supernatural  phraseology. 
The  one  most  largely  used  is  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  for  Chris- 
tian Worship,  compiled  by  Dr.  Martineau.  It  consists  of  ten  forms 
of  worship  or  "  services  " — it  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  "  Ten 
Services  " — with  special  forms  for  Baptism,  Confirmation,  and  Ordi- 
nation, as  well  as  prayers  for  the  Queen,  the  Royal  Family,  the  Church, 
Parliament,  &c.  These  latter  are  but  seldom  used  in  the  Unitarian 
body;  but  their  retention  in  this  manual  of  devotion  is  explicable 
from  the  principle  on  which  it  was  drawn  up — the  author  having 
simply  confined  himself  to  excluding  from  the  Anglican  liturgy  all 
that  possessed  a  Trinitarian  or  dogmatic  significance — and  perhaps 
also  from  the  further  idea  that,  in  this  form,  it  might  be  acceptable 
to  orthodox  congregations  in  a  state  of  transition. 

The  "  Ten  Services  "  are  at  present  used  in  more  than  two  hundred 
Unitarian  congregations  whose  ministers  do  not,  however,  hesitate  to 
modify  them  to  suit  their  own  requirements.  Besides,  in  a  recent 
edition,  the  author  or  compiler — who  has  always  kept  abreast  of  his  age 
and  who,  in  this  respect,  admirably  personifies  the  Unitarian  evolution 
of  modern  times — has  cut  out  all  the  passages  which  relate  to  what  he 
characterises  as  the  Messianic  Mythology,  that  is  to  say  the  direct  invo- 
cation of  Christ  as  Messiah  and  Mediator.  He  explains,  in  the  preface, 
that  these  ideas  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  increasing  tendency  of 
our  age,  which  leaves  the  soul  more  and  more  face  to  face  with  God. 


92  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

In  many  Unitarian  Churches,  either  because  an  antipathy  has  been 
maintained  to  formularies,  from  the  Presbyterian  origin  of  the  congre- 
gation, or  because  the  minister  prefers  having  recourse  to  extempor- 
aneous utterance,  there  is  no  form  whatever,  except  the  order  and 
distribution  of  the  service.  This  service,  moreover,  consists  in  all 
cases  of  an  alternation  of  hymns,  prayers  and  readings,  with  a  sermon 
towards  the  close.  Some  of  the  ministers  of  an  advanced  type,  such 
as  the  Revs.  Frank  Walters  of  Glasgow,  and  J.  Taylor  of  Preston,  no 
longer  select  their  reading  lessons  exclusively  from  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  but  also  from  what  the  Rev.  Peter  Dean  calls  the  sacred 
literature  of  all  ages  and  peoples.  In  some  cases  the  worshippers  join 
in  the  singing  of  the  hymns ;  at  other  times  they  allow  them  to  be 
wholly  sung  by  the  choir,  which,  though  an  advantage  from  a  musical 
point  of  view,  robs  the  service  of  much  of  its  fervour.  There  are 
some  ministers  who  make  use  of  a  gown ;  others  officiate  in  a  frock 
coat  with  or  without  a  white  tie.  The  Communion  Service  is  still 
administered  in  the  majority  of  the  congregations,  not,  as  will  be 
supposed,  with  a  sacramental  significance,  but  simply  as  a  fraternal 
symbol  in  commemoration  of  Jesus.  Some  congregations,  however, 
have  formally  suppressed  it,  or  at  least  allowed  it  to  fall  into  disuse. 

In  some  few  instances1  discussion  is  invited  at  the  close  of  the 
service,  the  minister  giving  over  the  subject  of  his  sermon  to  the 
criticism  of  anyone  who  wishes  to  speak  upon  it.  The  effect  con- 
troversies of  this  sort  must  have  upon  the  traditions  and  even  upon 
the  principles  of  Christianity,  will  be  readily  conceived ;  but  there  is 
nothing  in  them  which  is  not  conformable  to  the  eminently  theological 
temperament  of  English  society.1 

Some  of  the  buildings  used  for  worship  are  so  absolutely  destitute 
of  everything  possessed  of  religious  significance,  that  anyone  might 
readily  suppose  himself  in  a  lecture  or  concert  hall,  which,  indeed,  is 
frequently  the  case,  Protestants  having  no  prejudices  in  this  matter. 
Such  edifices,  in  short,  with  their  bare  walls  and  no  fittings  but  a  gallery 
for  the  choir,  with  seats  for  the  worshippers  and  a  pulpit  for  the 
minister,  form  what  may  be  called  the  traditional  type  of  Noncon- 
formist chapels.     There  are  congregations,  however,    on  the  other 

I .  This  is  true  merely  of  certain  new  congregations  formed,  some  time  since, 
under  exceptional  circumstances ;  the  practice  is  falling  into  disuse,  if  it  has  not 

entirely  ceased.  —  Translator. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM.  93 

hand,  who  worship  in  churches  which  bear  no  trace  of  Puritan  sim- 
plicity, either  in  their  internal  fittings  or  in  their  architecture.  So  far 
as  London  is  concerned,  I  may  mention  Unity  Church,  in  the  Islington 
district,  and  the  Free  Christian  Church  in  Clarence  Road,  Kentish 
Town,  in  illustration  of  this  statement.  Both  are  built  in  the  Gothic 
style,  and  possess  a  happy  arrangement  of  stained  windows,  as  well  as 
considerable  refinement  of  internal  decoration.  More  fortunate  than 
their  High  Church  brethren,  the  Unitarians  can  indulge  in  aesthetic 
effect  as  much  as  they  please,  without  being  liable  to  the  reproach 
that  they  are  on  the  road  to  Canossa  in  consequence  of  their  ritualism. 

This  extreme  independence  of  the  individual  churches,  has  facili- 
tated the  entrance  into  the  Unitarian  body  of  various  congregations 
which  originally  belonged  to  other  denominations — Baptists,  Presby- 
terians, Independents — and  which,  either  because  they  have  gradually 
rejected  their  former  confessions  of  faith,  or  because  they  never 
possessed  any,  have  thus  coalesced  with  the  descendants  of  the  old 
Socinians,  in  the  acceptance  of  a  Christianity  stripped  of  all  dogmatic 
elements.  According  to  the  Rev.  R.  Spears,  half  the  existing  Uni- 
tarian churches  are  the  historic  representatives  of  old  Presbyterian  con- 
gregations which  have  passed  through  Arminianism  during  their 
transition.  With  the  great  majority  of  them,  even  where  they  have 
retained  their  former  name,  as  for  instance  in  the  term  "  Unitarian 
Baptists,"  the  evolution  has  been  long  since  completed  ;  with  a  few 
others  it  is  to  be  actually  seen  in  progress.  As  examples  of  this  I  may 
mention  the  congregation  worshipping  at  the  Church  of  the  Saviour, 
Birmingham,  which  was  originally  formed  by  Mr.  George  Dawson, 
on  broadly  evangelical  lines,  and  is  to-day  ministered  to  by  the  Rev. 
G.  St.  Clair ;  and  also  the  congregation  of  Bedford  Chapel,  London, 
the  minister  of  which  is  the  Rev.  Stopford  Brooke,  formerly  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  members  of  the  Broad  Church  party.1   In  both 

I.  Possessed  of  distinguished  abilities,  great  learning,  and  a  sympathetic  mode  of 
address,  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke  has  carried  with  him  the  greater  part  of  his  old  con- 
gregation, and  what  is  very  rare  in  the  annals  of  secessions  from  the  Establishment, 
he  has  been  able  to  retain  the  building  he  used  when  in  Anglican  orders — the  im- 
portant Bedford  Chapel,  which  is  the  private  property  of  the  Duke  of  that  name. 
Mr.  Brooke  has,  also,  partly  adhered  to  the  form  of  the  Anglican  Service,  and  as 
he  figured,  long  previously  to  the  change,  among  the  most  heterodox  preachers  of 
the  Broad  Church  party,  there  would  scarcely  be  anything  to  mark  the  transition, 
were  it  not  for  that  increase  of  boldness  and  even  of  power,  which  always  results 
from  the  absence  of  compromise. 


94  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

these  instances  the  ministers  hold  views  which  assimilate  them  to 
moderate  Unitarians,  and  their  congregations  are  unquestionably  com- 
posed of  liberal  Christian  elements.  Still  they  have  not  yet  adopted 
the  Unitarian  name ;  nor  have  they  taken  their  place  in  the  denomi- 
nation.1 

A  somewhat  curious  illustration  of  this  once  came  under  my  own 
experience  at  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Clarence  Road,  Kentish  Town. 
The  preacher  having  taken  as  his  text  a  passage  from  the  writings  of 
St.  Paul  relative  to  the  dissensions  of  the  early  Christians,  devoted 
his  sermon  to  a  defence  of  the  attitude  adopted  by  Unitarians,  in 
refusing  to  consider  belief  in  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  and  the  divinity 
of  Christ  as  essential  elements  of  the  Christian  religion.  To  my  sur- 
prise I  learnt  afterwards  that  the  preacher  was  not  a  Unitarian,  but  a 
minister  of  the  Independent  Church.  My  informant  added  that  the 
first  time  the  minister  in  question  exchanged  pulpits  with  one  of  his 
Unitarian  brethren — an  act  which  is  very  common  in  the  Noncon- 
formist denominations — he  astonished  his  hearers  by  the  boldness  of 
his  language,  whilst  his  friend,  on  the  other  hand,  surprised  the 
Independents  by  the  cautious  tone  of  his  theological  utterances.  The 
circumstance  is  explicable  from  the  fact  that  the  Unitarian  considered 
it  wise  to  select  the  most  orthodox  of  his  sermons  for  the  occasion, 
and  the  Independent  the  most  liberal.  But  the  possibility  of  such  an 
occurrence  shows  clearly  enough  the  difficulty  there  is  in  circum- 
scribing the  sphere  of  liberal  Protestantism,  as  well  as  in  drawing  a 
clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the  most  closely  related  elements 
of  the  different  Churches  which  extend,  in  England,  from  Semi- 
Catholic  Ritualism  to  the  extreme  limits  of  religious  Rationalism. 

With  a  view  to  bring  into  closer  union  the  various  Churches  which 
have  successively  rejected  their  former  creeds,  a  section  of  the  Uni- 
tarian body,  in  1872,  proposed  the  abandonment  of  the  old  descriptive 
name  "  Unitarian,"  and  the  substitution  of  the  more  comprehensive 
term  "  Free  Christian  "  in  place  of  it.  Under  this  latter  designation, 
therefore,  they  founded  a  religious  association  with  a  view  to  embrace 
"  all  who  deem  men  responsible,  not  for  the  attainment  of  Divine  truth, 

1.  Mr.  Brooke's  connection  with  Unitarianism  has  become  much  closer  of  late, 
as  shown  by  his  having  allowed  his  name  to  appear  in  the  Unitarian  Almanack,  and 
above  all  by  his  having  preached  the  annual  sermons  for  the  British  and  Foreign 
Unitarian  Association  in  1S84. — Translator. 


ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM.  95 

but  only  for  the  serious  search  of  it,  and  who  rely  for  the  religious  im- 
provement of  human  life  on  filial  piety  and  brotherly  charity,  with  or 
without  more  particular  agreement  in  matters  of  doctrinal  theology." 

A  year  later  the  Free  Christians  duly  celebrated  their  first  anniver- 
sary in  the  fine  Masonic  Hall,  which  is  situate  in  Great  Queen  Street. 
Among  the  ministers  present  on  that  occasion  were,  side  by  side  with 
Dr.  Martineau  and  the  well-known  French  pastor,  Athanase  Coquerel, 
an  Independent  minister,  the  Rev.  W.  Miall,  and  a  member  of  the 
Anglican  clergy,  the  Rev.  C.  Kegan  Paul,  who  is  now  at  the  head  of 
a  great  publishing  firm  in  London.  The  "  Free  Christians  "  could 
hardly  have  taken  a  wiser  course  in  order  to  emphasise  their  claim  to 
comprehend  all  the  sections  of  Christianity  in  a  universal  Church, 
founded  no  longer  on  what  Channing  calls  "  a  degrading  conformity 
to  dogma,"  but  on  that  community  of  sentiment  which  admits  of 
independent  thought  within  the  bonds  of  religious  association.  They 
did  not  succeed,  however,  in  bringing  over  to  their  views  more  than  a 
somewhat  restricted  portion  of  the  Unitarian  congregations.  The 
fact  is  they  ran  counter  to  the  feelings  of  the  conservative  section  who 
cling  to  their  historic  name,  and  also  to  the  views  of  the  more  ad- 
vanced minds  who,  taking  the  word  Unitarian  as  the  synonym  of 
Monotheist,  regard  it  as  more  comprehensive  than  the  appellation 
"  Free  Christian,"  which  cannot  be  extended  beyond  the  bounds  of 
Christianity. 

The  various  Unitarian,  Presbyterian,  General  Baptist  and  Free 
Christian  congregations,  which  constitute  the  Unitarian  denomination 
in  Great  Britain,  are  374  in  number,  with  382  ministers,  according  to 
the  Unitarian  Pocket  Almanack  for  1883.  The  denomination  possesses 
six  monthly  periodicals,  a  publication  of  some  importance  which 
appears  every  three  months,  the  Modern  Review  ,x  a  quarterly  magazine 
devoted  to  Sunday  school  work  :  Teachers  Notes,1  and  finally  three 
weekly  journals  :  the  Inquirer,  which  treats  of  social  and  political  as 
well  as  religious  questions,  and  in  a  like  liberal  manner ;  the  Christian 
Life,  the  representative  of  the  conservative  tendencies  of  the  body ; 
and  the  Unitarian  Herald,  which  occupies  a  moderate  position 
between  the  other  two.1 

1.  The  Modem  Reviezu  has  since  been  discontinued,  but  a  new  publication  of 
the  kind,  though  of  more  general  scope,  is  contemplated.  Teacher's  Notes,  too, 
has  given  place  to  a  successor,  The  Sunday  School  Helper. — Translator. 


96  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

As  already  intimated  the  Unitarian  Churches  are  not  bound  together 
by  any  administrative  or  doctrinal  authority.  Still  there  has  grown 
up  among  them  a  large  number  of  special  associations  which  aim  at 
the  spread  of  liberal  principles  in  religion,  and  the  promotion  of 
educational  and  philanthropic  efforts.  The  principal  of  these  societies 
is  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association  which,  founded  in 
1825  by  the  fusion  of  several  pre-existing  societies,  concentrates,  to- 
day, all  the  active  forces  of  Unitarianism.  Its  programme  comprises 
the  following  objects :  The  spread  of  the  principles  of  Unitarianism 
at  home  and  abroad ;  the  maintenance  of  its  worship ;  the  diffusion 
of  critical,  theological  and  literary  knowledge  bearing  on  its  doctrines ; 
and  the  protection  of  the  civil  rights  and  interests  of  its  adherents. 
The  sum  which  the  Association  devotes  to  these  different  objects 
varies  considerably,  amounting  in  some  cases  to  nearly  £4,600  per 
annum.  Constituting  as  it  does  the  most  authoritative  permanent 
organization  of  Unitarianism,  its  voice  is  frequently  raised  in  the 
name  of  the  entire  body,  not  only  when  the  interests  of  the  denomina- 
tion are  at  stake,  but  also  in  relation  to  all  those  public  questions 
which  appear  to  its  members  to  concern,  in  any  way,  the  general  in- 
terests of  liberal  Protestantism.  Hence  it  rarely  holds  its  annual 
meeting  without  having  some  petition  to  Parliament  submitted  for 
consideration  by  its  committee. 

It  was  not  till  1844,  for  instance,  that  it  succeeded  in  getting  the 
State  to  recognize  the  rights  of  Unitarians  in  the  ownership  of  their 
chapels.  But  in  illustration  of  what  has  been  just  stated  and  in  oppo- 
sition to  what  takes  place  in  the  majority  of  Churches — and,  unhappily, 
beyond  the  pale  of  Churches  too — the  Unitarians,  I  may  add,  have 
not  been  content  with  demanding  justice  for  themselves.  The  Asso- 
ciation, indeed,  has  been  seen  to  successively  interpose,  in  the  most 
active  manner,  on  behalf  of  the  various  movements  organized  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  admission  of  Jews  to 
Parliament,  the  institution  of  civil  marriage,  the  acquisition  of  religious 
equality  in  the  parish  church-yards,  and  the  promotion  of  secular 
education  in  the  public  schools.1  As  early  as  1880,  it  petitioned 
Parliament  for  such  a  modification  of  the  Oath  as  would  no  longer 
make  the  exercise  of  legislative  functions  dependent  upon  religious 

I.  See  A  summary  of  the  History  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion, from  its  formation,  in  its  50th  Annual  Report.     London,  1S75. 


ENGLISH    UNITARIANISM.  97 

or  anti-religious  opinions  ;  and  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  1882,  revert- 
ing to  the  question  in  more  precise  terms  after  the  Bradlaugh  incidents 
in  the  House,  it  passed  the  following  resolution  : — "  That  this  meeting 
desires  to  place  on  record  its  affirmation  of  the  principle  that  the  pro- 
fession of  Atheism  should  not  deprive  any  citizen  of  his  civil  rights, 
including  that  of  representing  his  fellow-citizens  in  Parliament  if  duly 
elected ;  and  directs  the  Executive  Committee  to  take  every  fitting 
opportunity  of  petitioning  both  Houses  of  Legislature  in  this  sense." 
Again,  at  the  meetings  of  1883,  it  adopted  resolutions  condemnatory 
of  all  trials  for  blasphemy,  and  for  the  release  of  the  men  just  previ- 
ously sentenced  to  long  terms  of  imprisonment  in  connection  with 
the  Freethinker  prosecution. 

In  addition  to  their  Annual  Meetings  held  in  London,  at  Whitsuntide, 
and  their  autumnal  meetings  in  the  provinces,  the  Unitarians  hold, 
from  time  to  time,  General  Conferences,  which  are  attended  by  ministers 
and  delegates,  as  well  as  by  many  of  the  members  of  the  various  con- 
gregations. The  last  of  these  Conferences,  which  took  place  at  Liver- 
pool in  April,  1882,  was  a  brilliant  success,  and  is  regarded  as  having 
re-kindled  the  zeal  of  the  denomination,  which  had  somewhat  declined 
during  the  previous  years.1    Seven  hundred  delegates,  and  nearly  two 

1.  An  equally  successful  Conference  has  been  held  in  Birmingham  this  year — 
1885.  It  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  it  was  not  exclusively  Unitarian,  and 
that  Mr.  J.  Allanson  Picton,  M.A.,  M.P. — formerly  a  Congregational  minister — 
who  disavows  Unitarianism,  read  a  paper  there  on  : — "  The  Influence  upon  Religion 
of  the  Modern  Development  of  the  Critical  and  Rational  Spirit."  This  paper, 
describes  in  a  forcible  and  suggestive  manner  the  condition  of  religious  thought  in 
many  of  the  so-called  orthodox  Churches,  and  denotes  in  this  way,  at  least 
indirectly,  the  great  difficulty  which  Unitarianism  has  to  encounter,  as  a  special 
system  of  faith  and  worship.  It  has  in  short  so  full  and  direct  a  bearing  on  the  ques- 
tion discussed  in  these  pages,  that  the  reader  will  be  interested  in  the  following 
extract  from  it,  lengthy  as  it  is  : — 

"Thirty  years  ago  there  was  a  strong  line  of  demarcation  between  secular  and 
religious  periodical  literature.  The  one  for  the  most  part  carefully  eschewed 
theology,  or  only  took  cognisance  of  it  when  applause  could  be  won  by  vindicating 
the  worldly  wisdom  of  the  Anglican  via  media.  As  to  religious  magazines  and 
newspapers,  the  reputation  they  most  coveted  was  that  of  defenders  of  the  faith. 
The  struggles  of  the  Westminster  Review  and  other  humbler  ventures  of  the  same 
kind  only  go  to  confirm  these  remarks.  But  now  how  different  is  the  state  of 
things  !  Not  only  do  the  three  chief  monthlies  find  it  practically  safe  and  even 
profitable  to  dabble  in  heresy,  but  the  most  widely-circulated  religious  newspaper 
of  the  day  is  distinguished  by  the  frankness  with  which  it  treats  every  question 
affecting  the  relation  of  theological  dogma  to  scientific  discovery  or  historic  research. 
As  to  the  popular  magazines,  one  case  speaks  volumes,  and  the  mere  mention  of  it 

H 


98  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

thousand  other  friends  of  the  movement  responded  to  the  appeal  of 
the  organizers.  Hence  the  tone  of  the  subsequent  Annual  Meetings 
has  been  one  of  great  confidence  in  the  future.  It  might  be  affirmed, 
indeed,  that  Unitarianism  is  on  the  eve  of  a  new  development ;  for 
some  time  past  it  has  been  attempting  to  reach  the  masses  by  the 
organization  of  popular  services,  the  success  of  which  has  exceeded 
all  expectation.2 

will  save  the  accumulation  of  instances.  In  the  current  number  of  the  Contempor- 
ary Review,  a  magazine  specially  guaranteed  virginibus  puerisque  by  the  well  known 
character  both  of  editor  and  proprietors,  we  find  the  most  distinguished  satirist  of 
religious  schism  quietly  appealing  to  the  good  sense  of  his  readers  to  abandon  the 
miracles  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Resurrection,  together  with  the  prospect  of  a 
Day  of  Judgment,  on  the  ground  that  they  are  hindrances  rather  than  helps  to 
religion.  Now  this  and  similar  magazines  are  not  addressed  specially  to  readers  of 
a  negative  and  faithless  temper.  On  the  contrary,  the  vast  majority  of  their  readers 
are  not  only  regular  attendants  on  public  worship,  but  more  or  less  devout  and 
active  members  of  Churches.  Unless  the  critical  and  rational  spirit  had  spread  very 
considerably  amongst  them,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  appearance  of  articles  like 
'  A  Comment  on  Christmas  '  in  their  favourite  magazine  would  not  be  as  welcome 
to  them  as  it  evidently  is.  I  think,  therefore,  I  need  say  no  more  in  illustration  of 
what  I  mean  by  the  'modern  development  of  a  critical  and  rational  spirit.' 

"  It  is  natural  that  even  the  most  candid  and  courageous  advocates  of  devoutness 
and  faith  should  feel  a  little  anxiety  in  view  of  this  remarkable  movement  in  opinion. 
And  to  the  question,  What  is  likely  to  be  its  influence  on  religion  ?  no  satisfactory 
answer  can  be  given  which  does  not  allow  for  a  much  farther  advance  and  wider 
spread  of  the  same  spirit.  We  cannot,  with  any  sense  of  permanence,  content  our- 
selves with  showing  the  harmlessness  of  the  very  moderate  Rationalism  prevalent 
just  now.  The  time  at  my  disposal  does  not  allow  me  to  give  reasons,  and  I  must 
limit  myself  to  the  observation  that  the  same  influences  which  have  led  to  a  very 
general  abandonment  of  the  six  days  of  creation,  and  of  the  Legend  of  Eden,  are 
quite  capable  of  eliminating  all  miracle  whatever,  and  all  supernatural  revelation 
from  popular  belief.  Whether  that  will  universally  happen  or  not,  is  not  now  the 
question.  It  is  pretty  certain  to  occur  very  widely,  and  we  are  asking  ourselves 
what  will  be  the  influence  on  religion.  Suppose  a  whole  generation  regarding 
Christianity  as  a  purely  natural  incident  in  human  evolution,  will  they  on  that 
account  be  wholly  without  saving  faith  ?  It  may  be  said  that  it  is  impossible  to 
judge  until  the  time  comes.  But  I  venture  to  think  that  we  are  not  wholly  without 
the  means  of  forming  an  opinion  now. 

"  It  is  notorious  that  there  are  in  almost  all  Churches  at  the  present  day  a  con- 
siderable number  of  members  who  have  abandoned  every  shred  of  belief  in  miracle 
or  supernatural  revelation  in  the  ordinary  sense,  but  who  still  worship  with  their  old 
associates,  and  do  not  feel  it  necessary  even  to  turn  Unitarian.  Observe,  I  am  not 
speaking  of  ministers  or  clergymen,  but  only  of  ordinary  attendants  on  religious 
worship.  Unitarians  always  expect  to  get  hold  of  these  people.  They  even  think 
they  have  a  natural  right  to  them,  and  are  disposed  to  make  charges  of  disin- 
genuousness  or  cowardice  because  their  expectations  are  not  fulfilled.  But  there  is 
no  reason  for  such  complaints.  The  change  that  has  come  over  these  people  is  not 
a  conversion  to  Unitarianism,  but  the  development  of  a  spiritual  agnosticism  to 


ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM.  99 

As  we  have  seen,  variety  of  belief,  and  even  diversity  of  organization, 
does  not  exclude  from  among  Unitarians  either  the  feeling  of  denomi- 
nation, unity,  or  the  sentiment  of  a  true  spiritual  communion.  It  is 
this  which  the  Rev.  R.  R.  Suffield,  who  has  been  the  minister  at  the 
Unitarian  Church,  at  Reading,  in  Berkshire,  for  several  years  past,  and 
was  formerly  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  shows  in  the  following  terms, 
in  a  sermon  preached  in  i88t,  with  the  title,  IV/iy  I  became  a  Unita- 
rian : — "Amongst  them  there  were,  I  perceived,  various  opinions  as 

which  all  creed-framed  theologies  are  equally  meaningless,  and  all  real  worship 
equally  inspiring.  I  knew  very  well  one  of  these  people,  who  so  far  from  being 
attracted  to  Unitarianism  by  his  critical  and  rational  development,  was  only  drawn 
away  from  his  own  sect  by  a  preference  for  Methodist  fervour.  The  reason  is  very 
plain.  These  spiritual  agnostics  have  so  entirely  abandoned  all  hope  of  enlighten- 
ment about  the  ultimate  ontological  mysteries  of  the  Universe  that  they  feel  a 
resentment  against  preachers  who  bother  them  with  an  abandoned  puzzle.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  are  none  more  grateful  for  a  word  that  touches  the  heart  with 
a  human  sympathy,  or  deepens  reverence,  or  humbles  pride,  or  inspires  with  the 
temper- of  Christ. 

"  If  I  may  speak  from  a  tolerably  intimate  knowledge  of  some  typical  cases  of 
the  kind,  the  people  who  have  passed  through  this  experience  are  singularly  uncon- 
scious of  any  moral  or  spiritual  change  at  all  commensurate  with  the  intellectual 
difference  between  their  earlier  and  their  later  beliefs.  In  fact,  even  the  intellectual 
difference  does  not  appear  to  themselves  so  great  as  it  does  to  unsympathising  critics. 
But  of  that  I  may  say  a  word  presently.  At  any  rate,  their  religious  affections  are 
very  much  what  they  were  when  first  awakened  in  early  years.  If  they  then  betook 
themselves  to  St.  Thomas  a  Kempis  they  find  his  pages  no  less  refreshing  now. 
If  they  then  found  some  of  Wesley's  hymns  fit  music  for  the  Holy  of  Holies  within 
them,  it  is  only  a  few  needlessly  coarse  notes  that  strike  any  discord  now.  If  their 
hearts  then  glowed  at  the  fervent  though  ungrammatical  aspirations  of  an  unlettered 
brother  after  a  better  life,  they  do  not  find  the  least  decay  of  such  susceptibility  now. 
And  if  they  are  compelled  to  keep  themselves  at  a  distance,  it  is  only  out  of  respect 
for  the  painful  suspicions  entertained  by  the  unlettered  brother  concerning  them. 
Of  course  they  have  come  to  regard  faith  as  a  spiritual  affection  of  loyalty  to  the 
best  ideal  known,  and  not  in  the  least  degree  as  a  belief  of  facts  or  assertions.  But 
they  maintain  that  this  was  the  essence  of  faith  even  in  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul, 
though  they  allow  that  in  his  epistles  intellectual  processes  and  moral  affections  are 
not  always  kept  distinct.  But  holding  to  the  moral  significance  of  faith  as  the  only 
effective  part  of  its  confused  connotation  in  old  times,  they  find  that  in  regard  to 
the  essentials  of  religion,  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  .they  are  very  much  where  they 
were  in  the  days  of  their  evangelical  fervour. 

"  I  am  well  aware  of  all  the  objections  that  may  be  made,  first  against  the 
soundness  of  the  position  occupied  by  this  admittedly  exceptional  class,  and  next 
against  the  probability  of  any  wide  extension  of  their  experience  in  coming  gener- 
ations. As  far  as  the  narrow  limits  imposed  on  me  will  allow,  I  will  try  to  sum  up 
in  a  few  concluding  words  the  considerations  which  appear  to  me  to  outweigh  those 
objections.  These  people  say  that  their  practical  and  regulative  ideas  of  God, 
Christ,  and  the  Bible  are  proved  in  their  experience  to  be  quite  sufficient  for  the 
needs  of  life.     Now  if  this  is  so,  solvitur  ambulando,  and  such  experience,  when 


100  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

to  the  person  and  office  of  Christ,  as  to  the  supernatural  or  natural 
position  of  Christ,  of  Christianity,  of  the  Bible ;  but  I  found  them  for 
the  most  part  loyally  and  gratefully  pursuing  the  central  truth  of  their 
origin  and  co-operation,  as  worshippers  of  God,  free  to  follow  their 
reason,  their  consciences,  and  the  holy  law  of  Cosmic  growth. 

"  Lastly,  though  I  saw  many  Unitarians  accorded  to  the  Bible  and 
to  Christ  a  position  I  deemed  exaggerated  and  erroneous,  yet  even 
with  them  I  perceived  an  essential  bond  of  unity  and  agreement, 
inasmuch  as  they  always  claimed  for  conscience  and  reason  the  mental 
and  moral  supremacy  over  life  and  action.     So  I  was  not  forced  to 


real,  generally  proves  to  be  catching.  It  is  not  a  sufficient  objection  to  show  that 
the  practical  and  regulative  ideas  left  us  do  not  solve  the  mysteries  of  human  destiny. 
Of  course  they  do  not.  But  these  spiritual  agnostics  say  that  such  a  solution  of 
mysteries  is  no  part  of  the  work  of  religion.  It  is  for  philosophy  to  do  that— if  it 
can.  The  business  of  religion  is  not  to  give  intellectual  light,  but  moral  strength 
and  purity ;  not  to  enable  us  to  understand  the  working  of  the  universe,  but  to  make 
us  consciously,  by  unreserved  loyalty  of  soul,  contented  cogs  in  the  infinite  machine. 
Spiritual  agnostics,  therefore,  do  not  care  in  the  least  for  the  taunt  that  they  explain 
nothing.  They  carry  much  farther  than  the  old  evangelicals  their  protest  against  the 
pride  of  intellect.  In  fact,  what  they  chiefly  find  fault  with  in  these  old  evangelicals 
is  the  spurious  rationalism  which  pretends  to  declare  'the  whole  counsel  of  God.' 

"  What,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  are  those  practical  and  regulative  ideas  of  God, 
and  Christ,  and  the  Bible,  that  are  left  to  us  ?  The  author  of  «  Natural  Religion ' 
has  well  said  that  no  man  can  be  without  a  theology,  though  he  may  not  call  it  by 
that  name.  We  are  so  constituted  that  temporary  existence  is  unthinkable  without 
eternal  being  as  a  background;  for  we  cannot  imagine  anything  arising  out  of 
nothing.  Whether  we  choose  to  call  the  everlasting  by  the  name  of  God  or  not, 
we  cannot  think  it  away.  And  if  we  identify  it  with  the  universe,  there  remains 
that  transcendent  attribute  of  unity  to  which  science  bears  increasing  testimony, 
and  which,  when  we  try  to  realise  it,  sways  the  soul  with  an  overwhelming  awe. 
Many  sufficient  reasons  have  been  given  why  we  should  give  up  this  God  or  that ; 
and  with  reverence  be  it  spoken,  the  God  of  the  earliest  Christian  congregations  is 
not  in  all  points  the  God  of  Christian  congregations  now.  But  no  reason  of  any 
avail  has  ever  been  given  why  we  should  sever  ourselves  from  the  innermost  life  of 
humanity  by  wholly  surrendering  a  name  which  amidst  ten  thousand  variations 
always  keeps  a  central  significance  of  eternal  being,  authority  and  power.  As 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has  shown,  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of  God  exhibits  a  con- 
tinuity from  the  beginning  to  the  end  in  its  retention  of  an  indestructible  instinct  of 
kinship  between  the  bottomless  mystery  within  and  the  measureless  mystery  without. 
Aratus  conceived  of  God  in  one  way,  and  St.  Paul  in  another,  and  our  ideas  are 
necessarily  different  from  both  ;  but  there  is  a  meaning  for  us  all  in  the  words  that 
'  we  are  His  offspring.'  Before  we  were,  He  is.  Of  Him  we  are,  as  are  all  created 
things.  He  is  that  unity  of  power  which  co-ordinates  innumerable  forces  to  make, 
the  laws  of  nature  and  of  life.  The  thought  of  Him  stimulates  the  reverence  which 
makes  loyalty  to  universal  law  a  holy  obedience  and  a  joy.  Whatever  has  been 
said  of  God  and  His  ways  that  science  or  historic  criticism  can  disprove,  we  readdy 
surrender.     To  do  otherwise  would  be  disloyalty  to  Him.     We  cannot  picture  Him 


ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM.  101 

suffer  the  spiritual  disadvantages  of  religious  isolation,  for  I  could 
honestly  and  happily  find  amongst  Unitarian  worshippers  a  religious 
home,  and  the  benefits  of  religious  sympathy,  and  the  consolations  of 
collective  religious  worship.  And  during  eleven  years  I  have  never 
regretted  my  choice.  Religious  fellowship  is  always  a  blessing  to 
oneself,  but  it  is  moreover  a  benefit  to  others,  to  be  enabled  to  invite 
their   attention   to  communities  of  worshippers   wherein   the   most 

as  He  is.  But  we  picture  Him  as  we  can ;  for  the  visible  universe  is  the  skirt  of 
His  garment,  and  the  experience  of  mankind  is  His  partial  revelation,  the  growing 
interpretation  of  the  for-ever  unknowable.  And  His  worship  draws  us  out  of  self 
into  the  better  life  of  sympathy  and  loyalty. 

"  I  have  spoken  of  the  experience  of  mankind  as  His  partial  revelation.  I  cannot 
pursue  the  subject,  but  can  only  speak  of  the  one  conspicuous  illustration  which  makes 
us  Christians.  How  shall  a  man  best  live  in  the  thought  of  God  ?  Christ  is  the  answer. 
But  it  is  said  the  picture  of  Christ  is  unhistorical.  How  far  that  is  the  case  I  cannot 
argue  now.  We  have  very  good  ground  for  believing  that  the  loveliest  features  are 
historical  enough  for  all  practical  purposes.  But  however  that  may  be,  the  picture 
is  there.  It  is  the  reflection  of  a  life  where  self  is  dissolved  in  two  strong,  holy 
passions,  loyalty  to  God  and  love  to  man.  And  that  life  expresses  itself  in  words 
and  deeds  that  are  an  immortal  inspiration.  I  am  told  that  many  of  the  deeds  are 
evidently  distorted  by  imagination,  for  they  are  miracles,  and  miracles  never 
occurred.  Be  it  so.  I  am  rather  glad  of  it ;  for  it  removes  one  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  imitation.  But  the  thought  will  arise  that  this  very  distortion  suggests  the 
transcendent  mastery  of  a  spirit  whose  deeds  straightway  transformed  themselves 
into  miracles  in  the  memory  of  survivors.  At  any  rate,  the  luminous  simplicity,  the 
strange,  searching  power  of  the  words  recorded,  the  far-reaching  ideal  they  suggest, 
and  the  large-hearted  love  manifested  in  the  deeds  described,  together  form  a 
picture  which  represents  a  very  incarnation  of  that  vague  dream  of  a  kinship  or 
unity  between  God  and  man,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  has 
haunted  all  human  thought.  This  is  a  vision  which  the  critical  and  rational  spirit 
can  as  little  mar  as  the  theory  of  optics  can  degrade  a  rainbow." 

This  "spiritual  agnosticism,"  of  which  Mr.  Picton  speaks,  not  only  hinders  the 
extension  of  the  Unitarian  Church  from  without ;  it  tends,  moreover,  to  check  its 
"development  from  within.  For  no  sooner  do  its  ministers  and  members  get  to  feel 
that  dogma  is  infinitely  subordinate  to  worship,  than  they  lose  that  denominational 
zeal  which  characterised  their  fathers.  Besides,  the  growth  of  spiritual  insight,  the 
conviction  that  spiritual  life  clothes  itself  with  a  garment  of  belief  adapted  to  the 
culture  of  the  individual  is  another  hindrance  to  the  extension  of  the  Unitarian 
Church,  as  a  separate  organization,  to  say  nothing  of  the  indifference  that  so  often 
creeps  in  with  the  change  or  rationalistic  growth  of  a  creed. —  Translator. 

2.  This  is  specially  true  of  Leicester,  where  immense  congregations  have  been 
drawn  together  in  the  Floral  Hall,  by  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Hopps.  But  it  should  be 
added  that  these  particular  services  are  not  continued  throughout  the  year,  and  that 
no  attempt  has  been  made  to  crystallize  the  people  who  attend  them  into  a  perma- 
nent congregation,  or  to  do  more,  indeed,  than  awaken  religious  reverence  and  a 

sense  of  human  brotherhood,  as  far  as' possible,  apart  from  any  dogmatic  creed. — 

Translator. 


102  ENGLISH   UNITARIANISM. 

philosophic  and  independent  thinker  can  co-operate  without  an 
hypocrisy  and  without  an  equivocation — to  chapels  wherein  children 
are  taught  moral  and  sacred  lessons,  but  always  in  harmony  with  the 
highest  attained  truth—  to  chapels  wherein  the  various  epochs  of  life 
and  of  its  close,  are  sanctified  by  acts  of  devotion  not  founded  on 
the  mythological  or  interwoven  with  the  superstitious." 


CHAPTER       V, 


RATIONALISTIC  CONGREGATIONS  BEYOND  THE  PALE 
OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


The  Theistic  Church  at  Langham  Hall — The  Rev.  C.  Voysey  and  his  expulsion 
from  the  Established  Church — His  use  of  an  Anglican  liturgy  stripped  entirely  of 
its  Christian  character — His  principles  and  aims — History  of  his  congregation — 
Condition  and  future  prospects  of  the  movement — The  society  of  Independent 
Religious  Reformers — The  "Free  Church"  in  Newman  Street — Rules  of  the 
Society — Causes  of  its  failure — The  Humanitarians — Their  services  at  Claremont 
Hall — The  "Fifteen  points  of  the  religion  of  God" — The  philosophy  of  Peter 
Leroux  in  its  bearing  on  worship — "  Humanitarianism"  in  Castle  Street — Growth 
of  a  new  faith — Reformed  Judaism — Origin  of  this  movement  tending  to  strip 
Judaism  of  its  ceremonial,  hygienic  and  national  prescriptions — Gradual  rejection 
of  the  belief  in  direct  Revelation — Final  barriers  between  the  Reformed  Jews  and 
the  Theists  of  Christian  origin — Idealistic  Agnosticism — The  South  Place  religious 
society — Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway,  the  successor  of  W.  J:  Fox — Anti-dogmatic 
basis  of  the  organization  over  which  he  presides — Religious  worship  at  South 
Place  chapel — Mr.  Conway's  opinion  of  the  nature  of  religion  and  the  identity  of 
God  with  the  human  ideal — His  affinity  to  the  extreme  left  of  Unitarianism — 
Literary  merit  of  his  productions— Parallel  between  Mr.  Conway's  and  Mr. 
Voysey's  congregations. 


Men  of  a  logical  order  of  mind  have  reproached  the  Unitarians 
with  not  making  their  attempts  at  a  religious  synthesis  sufficiently 
comprehensive.  To  keep  the  name  of  Christian  and  at  the  same  time 
to  reject  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity  is,  they  think,  to  take 
pleasure  in  the  equivocal  and  to  needlessly  exclude  from  religious 
communion  Jews,  Mahommedans,  Buddhists,  and  even  Theists,  who 
refuse  to  recognise  the  divine  authority  or  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible. 
Besides,  it  is  urged,  why  build  up  purely  moral  principles  into  a 
dogma  when  there  is  a  declared  purpose  to  found  a  religious  associa- 
tion, not  upon  identity  of  belief,  but  upon  simple  uniformity  to  the 
needs  of  the  religious  sentiment.  The  universal  church  is  not  a  Free 
Christian  Church,  but  a  Free  Church,  and  therefore  open  to  all  who 
believe  in  the  existence  of  God,  and  feel  the  need  of  approaching 
Him  in  an  act  of  worship  with  their  fellows. 

An  attempt  was  made  in  France,  as  the  reader  may  be  aware,  at  the 
end  of  last  century  by  the  Society  of  Theophilanthropes,  to  establish 


104  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

a  system  of  worship  on  the  basis  of  what  were  considered  the  truths 
of  Natural  Religion,  or  the  principles  believed  to  be  held  and  accepted 
by  all  nations,  which  should  be  capable  of  uniting  the  adherents  of 
every  form  of  faith  in  a  common  aspiration  to  the  Deity.  It  is  on 
reasoning  analogous  to  this,  that  the  important  congregation,  to  which 
the  Rev.  C.  Voysey  ministers  in  London,  bases  its  claims  for  existence. 

Mr.  Voysey  was  a  distinguished  clergyman  of  the  Established 
Church,  who  from  the  time  he  took  Orders,  manifested  an  extreme 
independence  of  religious  opinions.  He  at  length  commenced  the 
publication  of  a  small  periodical  entitled — The  Sling  and  the  Stone, 
in  which  he  called  in  question  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  the  Fall  of  Man, 
the  Atonement,  Original  sin,  and  other  orthodox  beliefs.  This  excited 
such  a  storm  of  indignation  in  the  ranks  of  both  the  High  and  the  Low 
Church  parties,  that  the  English  Church  Union  and  the  Church 
Defence  Association,  each  offered  £500  to  cover  the  expenses  of  a 
trial  of  the  offender  for  heresy,  before  a  competent  tribunal.  As  the 
result,  Mr.  Voysey  was  deprived  of  his  position  in  the  Church,  when, 
without  even  passing  through  the  Unitarian  stage  of  development,  on 
the  1  st  of  October,  187 1,  he  founded  an  independent  congregation 
to  which  he  still  ministers. 

St.  George's  Hall,  where  I  heard  Mr.  Voysey,  for  the  first  time,  in 
1874,  is  a  small  structure,  the  interior  and  fitting  up  of  which  are  an 
exact  counterpart  of  our  (the  Brussels)  Cafe  Concert  Halls.  The 
stage  was  shut  off  by  a  curtain  of  red  cloth.  As  a  matter  of  course 
there  was  neither  altar  nor  pulpit ;  but  simply  a  kind  of  platform  also 
draped  in  red  cloth  and  raised  somewhat  above  the  footlights.  The 
congregation,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  was  composed  of  from  two  to 
three  hundred  persons,  who  bore  the  stamp  of  the  intellectual,  if  not 
of  the  upper  classes. 

A  circular,  distributed  in  profusion  over  the  seats,  apprised  me  that 
the  congregation  had  begun  to  raise  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  Church, 
which  was  not  to  be  commenced  till  the  contributions  had  attained 
a  sufficient  amount  to  complete  it.  At  the  beginning  of  April,  1874, 
the  sum  reached  was  £613  16s.  od. ;  to-day  it  amounts  to  £2000.  A 
single  person  figures  among  the  contributors  for  £500.  Several 
anonymous  donors  have  given  as  much  as  <£ioo  each.  I  noticed 
among  the  contributors  the  names  of  officers  and  baronets,  and  many 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  105 

eminent   scientists,  such   as   the   late  Sir   Charles   Lyell,    Sir  John 
Bowring,  &c. 

The  Rev.  C.  Voysey  conforms  to  a  type  of  clergymen  which  is 
somewhat  common  in  England :  small  in  statue,  a  slight  tendency  to 
corpulence,  black  and  smooth  hair  and  a  carefully  shaved  face.  I 
found  on  the  seat  where  I  was  placed,  as  I  had  done  in  Unitarian 
Churches,  a  form  of  service  specially  drawn  up  for  the  use  of  the 
congregation.  And  just  as  Dr.  Martineau's  Ten  Services,  or  the 
earlier  of  them,  present  a  resume  of  the  Anglican  Liturgy,  in  which 
all  Trinitarian  formularies  are  suppressed,  so  the  Rev.  C  Voysey's 
Revised  Prayer  Book  appears  to  be  a  condensed  form  of  it,  stripped 
of  every  Christian  formulary,  with  this  exception,  that  several  of  the 
services  have  been  composed  by  the  compiler  himself.  I  saw  for  the 
first  time  rites  destined  for  the  cremation  of  the  dead,  embodied  in  a 
liturgy ;  up  to  the  present,  however,  the  law  has  not  permitted  that 
method  of  disposing  of  the  dead  to  come  into  general  use. 

When  at  the  commencement  of  the  voluntary  Mr.  Voysey  ascended 
the  platform,  which  serves  him  as  reading-desk  and  pulpit,  I  noticed 
that  he  had  retained  the  surplice  and  stole  of  the  Anglican  clergy. 
At  first,  a  visitor  cannot  help  feeling  a  certain  surprise  when  he  hears 
the  most  energetic  attacks  made  not  only  upon  the  principles  of  cer- 
tain sects,  but  even  upon  the  doctrines  and  traditions  of  Christ 
himself,  by  a  man  who  wears  the  vestments  of  the  Christian  priest, 
makes  use  of  a  service  based  upon  those  of  the  Churches,  and  draws 
a  part  of  his  devotional  readings  from  the  Bible.  In  his  published 
sermon,  Christianity  versus  Universal  Brotherhood,  for  instance,  after 
denying  to  Unitarians  the  right  to  make  a  distinction  between  the 
dogmatic  and  moral  parts  of  their  beliefs,  Mr.  Voysey  reproaches 
Christianity  with  having  accepted,  only  against  its  will,  the  great 
principles  of  charity  and  toleration,  so  often  called  into  requisition  by 
those  who  reject  and  oppose  it. 

This  apparent  anomaly  disappears,  however,  when  it  is  considered 
in  relation  to  Mr.  Voysey's  conviction  that  above  all  things,  in  the 
matter  of  worship,  we  should  try  to  introduce  new  ideas  in  the  old 
forms.  "As  some  form  must  be  used,"  he  says,  in  the  Preface  of  his 
Revised  Prayer  Book,  "  the  form  most  likely  to  find  acceptance  would 
be  one  which  was  already  partly  familiar  to  English  ears,  and  yet 


106  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

stripped  of  all  that  has  become  obsolete  and  out  of  harmony  with  a 
pure  Theism."1 

The  sermon  I  heard. on  the  day  to  which  I  have  alluded,  was  in 
refutation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement :  that  is  to  say,  the 
expiation  attributed  to  Christ  for  the  redemption  of  humanity.  That 
sermon,  which  might  have  been  preached  in  any  Unitarian  pulpit, 
afforded  me  no  insight  whatever  into  the  special  doctrines  of  a  Church 
which  claims  to  be  unique  in  its  kind.  Fortunately,  I  procured  at 
the  door  the  sermon  preached  by  Mr.  Voysey  at  the  inaugural  cere- 
mony, on  the  ist  of  October,  1871.  "Our  first  work,"  says  he,  in 
this  genuine  manifesto,  "  is  to  undermine,  assail,  and,  if  possible,  to 
destroy  that  part  of  the  prevailing  religious  belief  which  we  deem  to 
be  false  " ;  that  is,  as  he  explains  in  detail,  almost  all  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity.  "  But  our  work,"  he  adds,  "  does  not  rest  here.  We 
should  be  both  distressed  and  ashamed  if  all  our  energies  were  to  be 
exhausted  in  putting  down  even  false  belief.  So  far  from  that,  we 
only  desire  to  eradicate  false  beliefs,  that  we  may  be  able  to  plant 
true  beliefs  in  their  place."  Hence,  as  he  goes  on  to  explain,  it  will 
be  his  duty,  in  the  first  place,  to  affirm  his  belief  in  the  existence  of 
a  Supreme  Being,  infinitely  good  and  just,  whom,  for  want  of  a  better 
name,  he  will  call  God.  Then  will  come  the  affirmation  of  a  future 
life,  which  he  considers  inseparably  connected  with  the  belief  in  God. 
"The  two,"  he  contends,  "must  stand  or  fall  together."  And,  lastly, 
he  will  seek  to  develop  truth,  justice,  purity,  and  brotherhood,  which 
represent,  in  his  opinion,  the  true  marks  of  the  religious  character. 

In  1880,  the  "Congregation  of  the  Rev.  C.  Voysey"  abandoned, 
at  the  suggestion  of  their  minister,  their  decidedly  personal  designa- 
tion and  replaced  it  by  the  title  "Theistic  Church."  In  connection 
with  this  change  of  name,  they  adopted  the  following  manifesto,  in 
which  some  few  rather  high-flown  expressions  are  to  be  found,  as  is 
often  the  case  in  the  most  rationalistic  English  theology ;  but  these 
must  not  cause  us  to  forget  its  elevation  of  thought  and  its  breadth 
of  sentiment.  Speaking  of  the  Church,  its  principles,  beliefs,  and 
practical  aims,  they  say  : — 
"  Its  Main  Objects  are — 

1.  To  promote  the  adoption  of  Theistic  principles  and  beliefs. 

1.  The  Revised  Prayer  Book,  compiled  by  the  Rev.  C.  Voysey,  2nd  Edition. 
London,  1875. 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  107 

2.  To  furnish  a  reasonable  method  of  satisfying  the  religious  emotions 
of  those  persons  who  can  no  longer  believe  the  orthodox  dogmas. 
"  The  Leading  Principles  of  Theism  are — 

i.  That  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  every  man  to  think  for  himself 
in  matters  of  religion. 

2.  That  there  is  no  finality  in  religious  beliefs;  that  higher  and 
higher  views  of  God  and  of  His  dealings  are  always  possible : 
and  therefore  it  is  to  be  expected  and  wished  that  future  gener- 
ations will  improve  upon  the  creed  now  held  by  Theists. 

3.  That  it  is  our  duty  to  obtain  the  highest  and  purest  truth  dis- 
coverable ;  and  when  it  is  discovered,  to  proclaim  it  honestly  and 
courageously.     In  like  manner  to  denounce  all  detected  error. 

4.  That  personal  excellence  of  character  is  necessary  to  a  right 
knowledge  of  the  goodness  of  God.  Religion  is  thus  based 
upon  morality,  and  not  morality  upon  religion. 

5.  That  Theism  is  not  aggressive  against  persons,  but  only  against 
erroneous  opinions. 

6.  That  Theism  recognises  the  value  of  all  moral  and  religious 
truth,  wheresoever  it  may  be  found. 

"  The  Beliefs  of  Theism  may  be  thus  briefly  expressed — 

1.  That  there  is  one  living  and  true  God,  and  there  is  no  other 
God  beside  Him. 

2.  That  He  is  perfect  in  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  and  there- 
fore every  one  is  safe  in  His  everlasting  care. 

3.  Therefore  that  none  can  ever  perish  or  remain  eternally  in 
suffering  or  in  sin ;  but  all  shall  reach  at  last  a  home  of  good- 
ness and  blessedness  in  Him. 

4.  That  as  we  have  been  created  for  this  goodness,  it  is  our  wisdom 
and  duty  to  be  as  good  as  we  can,  and  to  shun  and  to  forsake 
all  evil. 

"These  Beliefs  are  founded  upon — 

The  Religious  sense  acting  in  harmony  with  the  Reason,  the  Con- 
science, and  the  Affections. 
'"Theism  inculcates — 

1.  A  filial  trust  in  God,  which  may  be  strengthened  and  enlarged 
by  prayer  and  communion. 

2.  Worship  of  God  in  public  and  in  private. 

3.  A  life  of  joy  and  thankfulness  expressing  itself  in  good  deeds." 


108  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

Now,  careful  as  Mr.  Voysey  was  to  distinguish  between  dogmas 
which  from  their  nature  are  necessarily  immutable  and  beliefs  which 
are  open  to  change  from  all  kinds  of  influences,  this  official  adoption 
of  Theism,  pledging  as  it  did  the  congregation  to  opinions  which  up 
to  that  time  had  remained  personal  on  the  part  of  the  minister,  could 
not  fail  to  detach  the  secular  and  agnostic  supporters  who  had  rallied 
round  him  in  his  struggle  with  the  Anglican  Church,  but  who  were  by 
no  means  ready  to  accept  his  religious  opinions.  And  to  this  must 
be  added  the  fact  that  Mr.  Voysey  does  not  hesitate  to  strike  right 
and  left,  since  in  opposition  to  the  practices  of  Unitarians,  among 
whom  doctrinal  controversy  is  for  the  most  part  avoided,  he  devotes 
a  large  number  of  his  sermons  to  the  refutation  of  the  errors  of  ortho- 
doxy or  the  negations  of  scepticism.  Still  the  losses  he  sustained  from 
among  his  original  adherents  in  consequence  of  this  change,  were,  it 
would  seem,  rapidly  made  good  by  the  accession  of  new  elements, 
and  I  may  remark  that  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit  in  1882,  I  noticed 
far  more  attention  and  devotional  fervour,  on  the  part  of  the  congre- 
gation, than  was  observable  eight  years  previously. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  crisis  that  the  Theistic  congregation  has  had  to 
pass  through.  For  on  a  certain  occasion  its  members  found  the  doors 
of  St.  George's  Hall,  in  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  worship, 
unexpectedly  closed  against  them.  An  Evangelical  congregation  had 
surreptitiously  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  proprietors  of  the 
hall,  on  the  principle  that  business  takes  no  account  of  creeds,  in 
order  to  devote  to  the  God  of  Calvin  and  Wesley  that  den  of  unbelief, 
which  was  a  scandal  to  the  pious  world.  Happily,  Mr.  Voysey  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  another  hall  in  the  neighbourhood — Langham 
Hall — which  he  still  occupies.  According  to  the  information  with 
which  he  was  good  enough  to  furnish  me,  the  congregation  numbers 
from  five  to  six  hundred  subscribing  members  or  adherents.  During 
the  first  eleven  years  the  contributions  of  the  congregation,  over  and 
above  those  relating  to  the  building  fund,  amounted  to  more  than 
£13,000.  This  sum  does  not  include  <£i,ioo  devoted  to  charitable 
purposes.1    The  congregation  possesses  no  special  organ  in  the  press 

1.  The  sum  total  contributed  to  the  movement  up  to  the  present  time  (1885) 
amounts  to  ^21,000,  with  ^1,200  more  collected  for  charities  alone.  It  appears, 
too,  that  there  have  been  nine  marriages,  twelve  burials,  and  thirty-three  children 
brought  for  dedication  and  benediction  during  the  thirteen-and-a-half  years  the 
congregation  has  been  in  existence.  —  Translator. 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  109 

for  spreading  its  views,  but  it  has  Mr.  Voysey's  sermons  printed 
weekly,  and  circulates  them  widely  among  the  educated  classes.  The 
total  number  of  sermons  thus  distributed  amounted  some  time  since, 
to  450,00c1 

It  may  be  affirmed  indeed  by  way  of  summarizing  its  condition  and 
prospects,  that  Mr.  Voysey's  congregation  has  successfully  passed 
through  the  chief  difficulties  incidental  to  the  establishment  of  every 
New  Church,  and  it  is  probable  that  even  the  disappearance  of  its 
founder  now  would  not  lead  to  the  dispersion  of  its  members.  If,  as 
there  is  every  reason  to  hope,  it  succeeds  in  securing  the  funds 
required  for  building  a  Church  in  the  heart  of  London,  the  movement 
will  form  a  decisive  answer  to  those  who  in  these  days  contest  the 
possibility  of  establishing  a  permanent  Church  on  the  principles  of 
pure  Theism.2 

1.  Vide  Our  Aims,  principles  and  Beliefs,  the  eleventh  anniversary  sermon, 
preached  at  Langham  Hall,  Oct.  1st,  1882,  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Voysey. 

2.  It  may  be  stated  here  that  at  the  end  of  1884,  the  "  Theistic  Congregation  " 
were  able  to  purchase  the  lease  of  the  Scots'  Church,  Swallow  Street,  Piccadilly, 
and  that  they  began  to  worship  in  the  new  building  on  Easter  Sunday  of  the  pre- 
sent year — 1885.  In  relation  to  this  change  of  domicile,  Mr.  Voysey  preached  two 
special  sermons,  the  former  in  the  old  and  the  latter  in  the  new  building,  from  each 
of  which  an  extract  or  two  will  be  of  interest  to  the  reader.  In  his  last  sermon, 
for  instance,  at  Langham  Hall,  which  was  preached  on  the  29th  of  March,  he 
speaks  as  follows  of  the  difficulties  passed  through,  of  the  fidelity  of  his  people,  of 
the  acknowledged  value  of  his  work,  and  of  the  need  of  personal  consecration  in 
order  to  ensure  future  prosperity  : — 

"Almost  from  the  very  day  when  we  lost  our  tenure  of  St.  George's  Hall,  and 
took  up  our  quarters  here  in  Langham  Hall,  our  prosperity  began  to  decline,  and — 
there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  disguising  the  fact — the  cause  has  been  going  clown 
steadily,  annual  subscriptions  diminished,  the  number  of  seat-holders  diminished, 
the  visits  of  strangers  from  the  highest  ranks  in  society  became  fewer,  the  building 
fund  was  almost  forgotten,  and  the  general  fund  in  a  chronic  state  bordering  on 
collapse.  The  gaps  caused  by  death  among  the  influential,  the  wealthy  and  the 
aristocratic  were  not  refilled.  Whole  families  were  separated  from  our  congrega- 
tion by  emigration  to  the  provinces  and  to  the  colonies.  Some  persons  left  us 
because  they  were  offended  at  what  they  heard ;  the  sermons  were  not  sufficiently 
Atheistic,  or  not  sufficiently  Christian,  were  too  controversial,  or  not  controversial 
enough,  to  please  them.  Others  left  us  because  we  would  not  use  our  pulpit  or  our 
bookstall  in  the  interests  of  party  politics  or  of  some  scheme  or  crotchet  to  which 
they  were  primarily  devoted.  Others  stayed  away,  and  alas,  there  were  many  of 
them,  because  the  surroundings  were  so  poor  and  mean  and  the  congregation  so 
scanty.  Some  also  departed  because  they  had  what  the  Apostle  called  so  scornfully 
'  itching  ears '  and  cared  only  for  novelties,  startling  assertions  or  bitter  outbursts 
against  beliefs  which  they  discredited. 

"  Now,  this  fire  of  adversity  has  not  been  all  evil,  not  all  against  the  cause,  but 


110  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

Some  years  ago,  I  visited  another  Theistic  congregation  in  London, 
which  has  since  disappeared — the  Free  Church — organized,  in  New- 
man Street,  by  the  Society  of  Independent  Religious  Reformers. 
Here,  again,  however,  the  somewhat  imposing  title,  Free  Church, 
referred,  as  regards  the  building,  to  a  mere  Music  Hall,  of  rectangular 
shape,  with  a  stage,  and  a  circular  gallery  at  each  end  of  it.  A  leaflet, 
placed  in  my  hands  as  I  entered  the  building,  contained,  on  the  one 
side,  a  list  of  the  sermons  announced  for  each  Sunday  of  the  month, 
and,  on  the  other,  the  fundamental  rules  of  the  Independent  Religious 

very  much  good,  very  much  for  its  advancement.  It  has  tried  our  work,  of  what 
sort  it  is.  It  has  tried  and  tested  too  our  workers,  of  what  sort  they  are.  The 
'  wood  hay,  stubble'  and  paper  supporters  it  has  burnt  up,  and  the  wind  has  carried 
their  ashes  afar.  The  iron  the  silver  and  the  gold  the  fire  has  cleansed,  refined  and 
made  to  glow  with  greater  brilliance.  The  fire  has  strengthened  and  toughened 
the  sincere  and  the  true  of  heart.  It  has  given  them  courage  in  the  face  of  the 
world's  anger  or  scorn.  It  has  welded  together  souls  that  would  have  neither  cared 
for  each  other  nor  for  truth  in  easier  and  more  prosperous  times.  It  has  brought 
out  the  pure  metal  purged  of  its  dross  and  burnt  away  any  lingering  regard  for  the 
world's  smile,  and  every  lurking  motive  that  was  not  highest  and  best.  And  I 
know  how  all  this  terrible  adversity  has  acted  on  my  work.  The  darker  the  clouds, 
the  more  threatening  the  aspect  of  the  adverse  sky.  the  greater  has  been  my  effort 
to  do  my  best — my  poor  best  if  you  will — but  I  have  felt  more  anxious  to  do  my 
best  and  have  devoted  more  time  and  energy  to  make  my  work  good  and  true, 
because  I  saw  it  needed  far  higher  work  than  mine  to  save  the  cause  from  extinc- 
tion. I  became  more  bold,  more  daring,  in  my  open  avowal  of  what  I  believed  to 
be  the  needful  truth,  the  more  I  saw  that  some  did  not  like  it  and  were  offended  at 
it.  The  fire  of  their  blame  only  burnt  away  the  little  lingering  cowardice  which 
lay  hidden  in  my  heart.  And  when  I  think  of  the  constancy,  devotion  and  fidelity 
which  most  of  you  have  shown  and  which  have  alone  made  the  work  to  endure  so 
long  and  under  such  frightful  drawbacks,  again  I  must  thank  our  adversity  for 
testing  these  qualities  and  for  calling  out  these  energies  and  that  zeal  and  those 
magnificent  sacrifices  which  you  have  so  generously  and  heroically  given  without 
the  slightest  hope  or  prospect  of  any  earthly  reward.  You  must  feel,  because  you 
are  more  noble  for  having  overcome  personal  prejudices,  dislikes,  love  of  ease  and 
social  regard  in  order  to  do  what  you  believed  to  be  right,  and  what  was  demanded 
of  you  because  there  was  no  one  else  who  would  do  it." 

"Time  would  utterly  fail  me  if  I  were  to  try  to  give  you  any  adequate  idea  of 
the  testimony  which  I  have  been  receiving  all  along  to  the  spiritual  benefit  of  our 
religion  and  to  the  spread  of  our  beliefs.  I  have  hundreds  and  thousands  of  letters 
from  men  and  women  in  various  parts  of  the  world  full  of  joy  and  thankfulness  at 
the  proclamation  of  such  blessed  truths.  Some  are  delighted  to  find  openly  expressed 
what  they  had  so  long  privately  believed.  Others  and  many  more  have  been  helped 
by  our  Theism  out  of  confusion  of  thought,  out  of  lingering  prejudice  and  supersti- 
tion, out  of  morbid  fear  and  doubt  of  God,  and  are  never  weary  of  thanking  God 
for  their  deliverance  and  praying  God  to  help  and  prosper  our  Church.  Others 
again,  once  wholly  Agnostic  and  the  religious  sense  all  but  extinguished,  have  come 
round  into  a  higher  and  more  reasonable  state  of  mind ;  they  have  shaken  off  the 
incubus  of  pessimism  ;  they  no  longer  believe  that  in  Materialism  is  to  be  found  the 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  Ill 

Reformers.  They  stated  their  object  to  be— "  First,  to  secure  the 
association  of  such  persons  as  are  desirous  of  cultivating  the  religious 
sentiment  in  a  manner  which  shall  be  free  from  the  evil  spirit  of  creed, 
the  intolerance  of  sectarianism  and  the  leaven  of  priest-craft,  and  of 
such  persons  as  respect  the  authority  of  reason,  and  who  reverently 
accept  the  decrees  of  conscience ;  secondly,  to  discover  and  methodize 
truth,  connected  with  either  the  laws  of  nature,  the  progress  of  thought, 
or  the  lives  of  good  men  of  all  ages  and  countries,  so  that  they  may 

full  solution  of  human  life,  much  less  the  solution  of  the  still  grander  problem  of 
the  universe  and  its  eternal  cause.  They  have  learnt  not  to  contemn  the  idea  and 
the  practice  of  prayer  and  many  of  them  have  even  learnt  to  pray.  And— what  is 
more  encouraging — those  who  have  been  able  to  gain  clearer  insight  and  to  have 
some  true  faith  in  God,  have  strongly  prophesied  that  if  religion  is  to  survive,  it 
must  be,  like  ours,  one  that  is  in  harmony  with  reason  and  common  sense  and  yet 
not  a  mere  cold  philosophy  destitute  of  power  to  kindle  the  emotions.  In  all  that 
God  has  hitherto  helped  us  and  in  this  also— that  our  faithful  discharge  of  our  duty 
in  coming  here  to  worship  has  resulted  in  a  greater  clearing  of  our  own  minds  in 
looking  at  truth  and  its  counterfeits,  in  a  greater  plainness  of  speech  arising  there- 
from, better  still,  in  stronger  faith  in  God  and  His  loving  purposes,  in  wider  hope 
for  universal  bliss,  and  in  more  ardent  love  to  our  Father  and  to  our  brethren.  Our 
devotion  to  this  work  has  had  a  manifest  influence  in  improving  our  lives  and  our 
character." 

"  I  have  had  to  live  with  God  and  to  hold  more  firmly  by  His  hand,  and  to 
cling  closer  to  his  bosom  the  more  I  felt  estranged,  isolated  and  exiled  from  the 
approval  and  encouragement  and  sympathy  of  the  world,  sometimes  of  my  dearest 
friends.  The  harder  and  more  painful  my  task,  the  greater  strength  and  peace  have 
I  had  through  trusting  in  Him.  But  do  not  mistake  my  purpose  in  referring  thus 
so  very  personally  to  my  own  experience.  I  do  so  only  because  I  know  that  one 
of  the  best  ways,  if  not  the  best  way,  to  impress  others  is  to  wield  a  bare  fact,  to 
state  the  simple  and  exact  truth  as  we  know  it  and  have  felt  it,  aye,  and  tested  it  a 
thousand  times.  A  Church,  so-called,  composed  of  men  and  women  who  never 
pray,  who  never  hold  any  kind  of  communion  with  God,  if  it  could  last  a  week, 
would  be  the  most  empty  and  contemptible  of  all  the  shams  with  which  demented 
humanity  has  ever  amused  itself.  It  would  be  composed  of  '  souls  which  had  been 
put  to  silence,'  souls,  for  the  time  being,  as  dead  as  a  corpse.  And  if  I  desire,  as  I 
do  so  deeply  and  fervently,  that  the  Theistic  Church  shall  live  and  prosper,  shall 
live  as  life  is  measured  by  its  Divine  Author  and  Giver,  and  shall  prosper  as  pros- 
perity is  measured  by  the  Divine  standard,  I  cannot  put  that  desire  into  plainer 
words  or  give  it  deeper  meaning  than  by  saying  this  :— I  would  that  every  one  of 
you  would  pray  without  ceasing,  would  live  a  life  of  prayer,  would  cling  close  to 
God  and  hold  by  His  hand  and  be  guided  by  His  will  and  trust  Him,  trust  Him 
utterly,  with  every  breath  you  breathe." 

Turning  to  the  first  sermon  preached  in  his  New  Church,  we  find  Mr.  Voysey 
speaking  in  these  words  of  gratitude  and  rejoicing  : — 

"  This  Easter-day  may  be  taken  by  us  as  a  symbol,  not  of  the  resurrection  to  life 
of  a  dead  Saviour,  but  of  the  rising  out  of  the  ground  of  adversity  and  obscurity, 
of  wintry  cold  and  torpidity,  of  those  living  germs  of  truth  which  we  prize  so 


112  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

be  rendered  of  practical  value  as  guides  to  a  healthful,  moral,  and 
manly  life ;  thirdly,  to  assist,  as  a  religious  duty,  in  the  regeneration 
of  Society,  by  co-operating  with  every  organized  body  whose  aim  is  to 
abolish  superstition,  ignorance,  intemperance,  political  injustice,  or 
any  other  of  the  numerous  evils  which  now  afflict  Society."  Every 
person,  "male  or  female,"  desirous  of  aiding  in  the  promotion  of 
these  various  objects,  might  join  the  Society  without  signing  any 
confession  of  faith,  provided  such  person  undertook  to  pay  an  annual 
contribution  of  not  less  than  a  pound  sterling. 

The  services  consisted,  as,  indeed,  everywhere  else,  of  an  alterna- 
tion of  hymns  and  prayers,  together  with  devotional  readings  and  a 

dearly,  into  a  happy  and  hopeful  spring.  Of  the  vicissitudes  of  our  society  it  is  not 
needful  to  say  much.  But  one  cannot  mention  those  days  without  recalling  the 
dear  names  of  many  who  are  gone  to  their  heavenly  rest  and  are  not  here  to-day 
to  witness  the  fruit  of  their  pious  exertions.  Among  our  committee  were  to  be 
found  Dr.  Patrick  Black,  Sir  John  Bowring,  Samuel  Courtauld,  Charles  Darwin, 
Erasmus  Darwin,  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Andrew  Pritchard,  Judge  Stansfield,  and  our 
chairman,  the  Right  Rev.  Samuel  Hinds,  formerly  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  many 
others,  amounting  to  254,  whose  deaths  we  still  deeply  deplore. 

"  In  1875,  we  were  compelled  to  leave  St.  George's  Hall  and  go  to  Langham 
Hall,  much  to  our  disadvantage  in  every  way.  But  in  1880  a  very  important 
change  was  made,  and  I  claim  the  full  credit  or  discredit  of  having  urged  it  and 
finally  brought  it  about.  The  work  had  suffered  from  ignorant  or  wilful  misrepre- 
sentation and  we  were  not  sufficiently  known  to  be  a  really  religious  body,  working 
from  religious  motives  for  a  religious  end.  Hence  it  became  needful  to  drop  the 
unpleasant  and  personal  title  of  the  Voysey  Establishment  Fund  and  to  re-organize 
the  society  and  give  it  a  distinctive  and  religious  name.  In  this  measure  I  was 
supported  by  the  counsel  and  sanction  of  the  late  Dean  Stanley.  I,  on  my  part, 
also  wished  that  the  property  of  the  Church  should  be  so  vested  on  a  new  Trust 
that  the  work  could  be  carried  on  in  the  event  of  my  death  or  retirement,  and  this 
could  not  have  been  done  under  the  old  Trust,  which  was  'to  establish  me  in  a 
Church  of  my  own  in  London.'  So  we  re-organized  ourselves  and  adopted  the 
title  of  The  Theistic  Church.  This  day,  then,  after  fourteen  years,  is  fulfilled 
the  purpose  for  which  the  Voysey  Establishment  Fund  was  set  on  foot,  and  I  need 
hardly  say  what  must  be  in  the  heart  of  every  true  Theist  amongst  us  : — That  we 
rejoice  and  are  exceeding  glad — yea,  unspeakably  thankful. 

"  '  This  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.'  '  This  is  the  day 
which  the  Lord  hath  made  :  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it.  Help  us  now, 
O  Lord,  send  us  now  prosperity.' 

"  The  emotions  which  these  words  express  are  too  deep  in  your  hearts  and  mine 
to  bear  reiteration.  Instead  of  dwelling  on  our  thankfulness  in  words,  it  is  far 
better  that  I  should  follow  the  natural  current  of  thought  and  feeling  which  is  always 
set  flowing  by  heartfelt  gratitude.  From  time  immemorial,  as  our  dear  Book  of 
Psalms  shows,  the  sense  of  God's  bounty  and  loving-kindness  always  begets  a 
deeper  sense  of  our  responsibilities  and  a  longing  to  give  some  practical  proof  of 
our  thankfulness,  '  to  show  forth  Thy  praise  O  Lord,  not  only  with  our  lips  but  in 


BEYOND    THE    PALE    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  113 

sermon.  The  sermon  which  1  heard  was  entitled,  "  The  Means  and 
the  Glory  of  Spreading  the  Knowledge  of  Religion."  The  preacher 
said  a  little  about  everything  in  it ;  and  he  specially  insisted  upon  the 
mistake  made  by  Christian  missionaries  who  treat  as  idolaters,  if  not 
as  savages,  peoples  greatly  advanced  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  instead 
of  presenting  themselves,  as  St.  Paul  did  to  the  Athenians,  with  the 
simple  claim  to  complete  the  ideas  of  their  hearers  respecting  the 
Supreme  Being  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Unfortunately,  his 
tone  was  somewhat  monotonous  and  magisterial,  apart  from  the  fact 
that  the  address  rose  but  little  above  historical  criticism.  In  spite  of 
the  intervention  of  the  singing,  I  could  have  believed  myself  present 
at  a  critical  exposition  or  lecture  on  the  history  of  religions,  rather 
than  at  a  religious  seryice,  though  one  of  a  purely  Theistic  order. 
I  may  add  that  the  congregation  took  no  part  in  the  service ;  that 
they  remained  seated  the  whole  time,  and  did  not  join  in  the  hymns, 
even  in  the  faintest  manner ;  nor  was  there  any  liturgy  used  to  indi- 
cate the  changes  of  the  service.  These  circumstances,  taken  together, 
afford  an  explanation  of  the  failure  of  this  movement,  which,  as  regards 
principles,  was  so  closely  connected  with  Mr.  Voysey's  Theistic 
Church.     It  is  worthy  of  remark  also  that  Mr.  Voysey  has  arrived  at 

our  lives,  by  giving  up  ourselves  to  Thy  service  and  by  walking  before  Thee  in 
holiness  and  righteousness  all  our  days  to  Thy  honour  and  glory.'  ....  We 
rejoice  most  because,  as  we  hope,  the  Truth  which  is  so  dear  to  us  will  become 
more  widely  known.  We  take  a  legitimate  pleasure  in  thinking  of  the  greater 
publicity  and  prominence  of  our  Church,  of  the  many  who  will  become  acquainted 
with  the  fact  of  our  work  and  be  able  easily  to  learn  for  themselves  what  it  is  we 
believe  and  hope  and  wish  to  impart.  For  this  only  do  we  rejoice  in  our  greater 
publicity,  because  we  hope  and  expect  to  bring  more  people  of  our  own  way  of 
thinking  to  come  here  and  worship  with  us  and  also  to  bring  into  the  fold  many 
who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  old  Churches  and  creeds  and  may  be  induced  to  em- 
brace our  religious  beliefs  and  to  join  with  us  in  worship.  It  is  our  hope  also  to 
-bring  under  the  influence  of  our  religion  many  out  of  the  vast  masses  of  those  who 
never  go  to  worship  at  all.  I  must  add  here  also,  though  I  am  half  ashamed  of  it, 
that  we  rejoice  in  having  become  possessed  of  this  Church  because  it  will  remove  a 
prejudice  common  to  so  many  minds  against  worshipping  in  a  Hall  or  other  place 
of  secular  entertainment.     No  longer  can  the  excuse  be  made  that  we  assemble  in 

an  unworthy  or  an  unsuitable  place This  Theistic  Church  of  ours  has 

only  lived  till  now  through  faithful  attendance,  marked  as  it  has  been  in  some  cases 
by  persons  travelling  10,  20,  30  and  even  50  miles  to  be  present  at  the  service  and 
in  all  weathers.  You  will  say,  and  say  most  truly,  that  the  outer  world  will  judge 
of  your  love  for  the  cause,  of  your  attachment  to  the  creed  you  profess,  by  your 
actions  and  not  by  your  profession,  and  therefore  if  you  desire  others  to  come  into 
our  fold  and  worship  with  us  and  catch  our  enthusiasm,  we  must  at  least  be  here  to 
receive  them,  must  show  that  we  do  value  the  reasonable  worship,  and  are  ready  to 

I 


114  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

the  present  form  of  worship  by  the  continued  and  logical  development 
of  his  spiritual  vocation,  while  the  Free  Church  of  the  Independent 
Religious  Reformers  bears  incontestable  witness  to  the  stiffness  and 
lifelessness  of  a  religious  service  which  is  purely  the  outcome  of 
rational  principles. 

Among  the  Theistic  organizations  of  London  I  must  not  omit  to 
mention  the  Humanitarians,  were  it  only  by  way  of  keeping  my 
recollection  fresh  and  green.  As  I  was  walking  up  the  Pentonville 
slope,  on  a  certain  Sunday  in  1875,  m  order  to  attend  Unity  Church, 
the  charming  Unitarian  place  of  worship,  at  Islington,  I  passed  in 
front  of  a  building  called  Claremont  Hall,  where  there  was  a  bill 
posted  up,  which  announced  a  series  of  lectures  to  be  given  by  the 
Humanitarian  Society.  Among  the  names  of  the  lecturers  there  were 
several  indicative  of  a  Jewish,  a  German,  and  even  a  Sclavonic  origin. 
The  subjects  for  treatment  were  of  the  most  varied  description,  from 
"The  religion  of  God"  to  "The  Social  Condition  of  the  Blind."  My 
curiosity  having  been  aroused,  I  plunged  into  a  dark  passage,  follow- 
ing two  young  men  who  were  conversing  in  German.  I  soon  found 
myself  in  a  large  hall  provided  with  seats,  where  some  score  or  so  of 
persons  were  sitting  at  their  ease.  Near  to  a  platform  intended  for 
the  preacher  stood  the  inevitable  piano,  which  was  already  trembling 
beneath  the  touch  of  a  young  person  dressed  in  black.  The  time 
passed  on.    A  second  air  succeeded  the  first,  then  a  third,  and  yet  there 

make  sacrifices  of  comfort  in  our  zeal  for  the  cause God  help  us  all  to 

walk  in  that  path  and  uphold  us  when  our  feet  would  slip  and  guide  us  lest  we  go 
astray !  O  Thou  Eternal  Righteous  Father,  who  hast  been  our  refuge  and  strength 
in  every  time  of  trouble,  and  hast  mercifully  brought  us  to  this  House  of  Prayer, 
pour  upon  us  the  riches  of  thy  grace  that  we  may  faithfully  and  godly  serve  Thee ; 
that  this  Church  which  we  this  day  consecrate  anew  to  Thy  service  may  be  to  all 
our  hearts  a  means  of  grace,  a  comfort  in  all  our  sorrow  and  a  strength  against  all 
temptation.  Keep  far  from  us  vanity  and  lies,  compromise  and  cowardice,  indiffer- 
ence and  insincerity  ;  and  graciously  bestow  upon  us  the  spirit  of  humility  and  truth, 
of  honesty  and  courage,  of  earnest  faith  and  true  religion,  of  fervent  love  to  Thee 
and  to  all  men.  And  if  our  work  be  good  in  thy  sight,  '  Help  us  now,  O  Lord, 
0  Lord,  send  us  now  prosperity.'  " 

These  passages  indicate  the  deep  religious  spirit  which  permeates  Mr.  Voysey's 
teaching  in  spite  of  his  theological  antagonism  to  Christian  dogmas.  Had  that 
teaching  been  almost  exclusively  negative  the  movement  would  have  died  out  long 
ago.  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  the  religious  fervour  which  is  displayed  here.  His- 
torical considerations  and  influences  apart,  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  why  pure 
Theism  should  not  create  the  most  beautiful  piety  ;  for  was  not  this  Theism  the 
creed  of  the  grand  old  Prophets  and  even  of  Jesus  himself,  if  he  is  to  be  regarded 
as  truly  human? — Translator. 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  115 

was  no  sign  of  the  preacher  or  lecturer's  appearance.  Wearied  by  this 
waiting,  I  at  length  lost  all  patience  and  beat  a  quiet  retreat ;  but 
not  without  attracting  the  attention  of  a  respectable  elderly  man 
standing  near  the  door,  who  slipped  into  my  hands  a  pamphlet  with 
these  attractive  headings : — "  The  Age  of  Light,"  "  The  God  of 
Nature,"  "Humanitarian  Marriages,"  "Fifteen  Points  of  the  Religion 
of  God,"  &c. 

Imagine  my  astonishment  at  finding  in  the  theories  preached  at  the 
Pentonville  Music  Hall,  the  system  of  Pierre  Leroux,  who  claimed  'to 
find  in  pagan  philosophy,  and  even  in  Christianity,  grounds  for  a 
belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  within  the  limits  of  human  life 
here  on  earth.  The  Humanitarians  tend  more  to  Pantheism  perhaps, 
since  they  define  God  as  an  eternal  and  indivisible  Being,  whose 
essence  pervades  the  whole  universe  in  the  double  form  of  matter 
and  spirit ;  but  their  theory  of  the  soul  is  an  exact  reproduction  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  French  writer  in  question. 

Over  and  above  an  exposition  of  the  "  religion  of  God,"  the 
pamphlet  contained  several  curious  dissertations  and  controversial 
statements, — a  confession  of  faith  which  only  needed  to  be  signed 
"  conscientiously,  in  order  to  give  any  person  the  right  to  use  the 
name  and  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  Humanitarians ;  a  few  words  of 
gratitude  to  the  "God  of  Nature,"  entitled  the  Prayer  of  the  Human- 
itarians ;  certain  extracts  from  discourses  delivered  in  the  open  air, 
"  superior  to  and  superseding  the  first  four  chapters  of  the  New 
Testament,  as  well  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount " ;  and,  finally,  the 
rites  for  the  "  Humanitarian  solemnization  of  marriage."  These 
rites,  it  appears,  were  made  use  of  for  the  first  time  in  1873,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  marriage  of  Mr.  Joachim  Kaspary,  the  chief  apostle 
of  the  movement,  with  the  daughter  of  the  originator.  But  as  the 
civil  legislation  of  England,  which  is  not  as  yet  "humanitarianized," 
would  not  have  recognized  the  marriage  had  it  taken  place  in 
Claremont  Hall,  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  with  their  friends,  were 
driven,  per  force,  to  use,  for  the  ceremony,  a  chapel,  whose  minister, 
Mr.  Conway,  had  complied  with  the  requirements  of  the  law  by 
having  it  duly  licensed. 

On  my  visit  to  London  in  the  summer  of  1882,  I  expected  to  find 
that  the  Humanitarians  had  long  since  disappeared ;  but,  instead  of 
this,  I  found  them  established  in  the  heart  of  London,  in  a  house  in 


116  RATIONALISTIC   COMMUNITIES 

Castle  Street,  where  Mr.  Kaspary,  then  become  the  head  of  the  sect 
by  right  of  succession,  had  constructed,  in  his  back  premises,  a  small 
wooden  chapel  capable  of  seating  some  sixty  persons.  As  regards 
the  service,  it  seemed  to  me  simplified  by  the  absence  of  the  piano, 
and  it  was  also  commenced  at  the  appointed  hour.  It  consisted  of 
an  apologetic  kind  of  discourse  and  an  extemporaneous  prayer  by  Mr. 
Kaspary,  with  a  sort  of  interlude  from  Mrs.  Kaspary,  who  ascended 
the  platform  to  read  the  "Fifteen  Precepts  of  the  Religion  of  the 
Humanitarians."  The  congregation,  a  by  no  means  numerous  one, 
was  formed  exclusively  of  members  of  the  male  sex. 

Still,  the  Humanitarians  continue  their  mission  with  an  energy 
which  testifies  to  their  sincerity ;  for  they  connect  with  their  weekly 
Sunday  services  preaching  in  the  open  air — during  the  summer  in 
Regent's  Park,  and  under  the  arches  of  Chelsea  Bridge  in  the  winter. 
They  also  advertise  their  Castle  Street  meetings  in  the  Saturday's 
Daily  News,  and  they  distribute  an  immense  number  of  tracts,  either 
gratuitously  or  at  a  reduced  price. 

The  strangest  aspect  of  this  movement  is  not  that  an  individual 
should  have  invented  or  formulated  such  a  vague  and  questionable 
system  as  Humanitarianism,  but  that  people  should  have  been  found 
to  believe,  follow,  and  support  it.  As  yet,  in  truth,  save  and  except 
the  marriage  of  its  adherents,  preaching  has  constituted  the  only 
manifestation  of  the  Humanitarian  faith;  but  they  will  doubtless 
develop  their  ritual  as  fast  as  the  need  for  this  makes  itself  felt. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  indeed,  that  we  see,  in  what  I  have  described, 
the  infancy  of  a  new  religion.  If  the  movement  does  not  succumb 
during  this  embryonic  period,  which  may  be  called  its  metaphysical 
phase,  we  may  foresee,  from  its  tendency  to  dogmatic  assertion,  that 
it  will  not  be  slow  to  transform  itself  into  a  positive  system  of  worship, 
with  its  necessary  train  of  spontaneous  or  reflective  practices,  if  not 
with  a  whole  system  of  theology,  based  upon  some  pretended  revela- 
tion. At  present,  however,  Humanitarianism  constitutes  a  tolerably 
harmless  doctrine,  which  is  perfectly  moral  in  its  precepts  as  well  as 
in  its  practices,  and  is  wholly  confined  to  that  super-sensible  sphere 
where  all  sorts  of  religious  speculations  are  permissible,  so  far  as  they 
are  sincerely  advanced,  from  the  very  fact  that  the  processes  of  the 
scientific  method  can  demonstrate  neither  their  truth  nor  their 
falseness. 


BEYOND    THE    PALE    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  117 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that,  in  mentioning  the  Humani- 
tarian Society  in  this  enumeration  of  the  Theistic  congregations,  I  do 
so  because  it  forms  a  sort  of  religious  curiosity,  and  not  from  any 
illusive  ideas  as  to  its  real  importance.  It  is  only  Mr.  Voysey's  con- 
gregation which  offers  to  Theism  a  rallying  point  or  centre  of  action 
capable  of  assuming  a  great  development,  if  it  should  succeed  in 
uniting  all  who  accept  its  doctrines.  Unhappily,  it  has  to  struggle 
against  that  absence  of  enthusiasm,  or  rather  spirit  of  proselytism, 
which  generally  characterizes  Theists,  and  leads  them,  as  I  have 
already  intimated,  either  to  remain  in  the  churches  which  they  have 
really  outgrown  or  to  shut  themselves  up  in  a  sort  of  religious  indi- 
vidualism when  they  have  left  them. 

It  is  perhaps  here  that  I  should  describe  the  doctrine  of  the 
Reformed  Jews,  who,  rejecting  the  infallibility  of  their  sacred  books, 
have  made  common  cause  with  a  rationalistic  Monotheism.  The 
Jewish  Reformation,  which  was  set  on  foot,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  by  the  German  Jews,  with  certain  simplifications  of  ritual, 
and  which  gradually  extended  to  the  Jews  of  all  civilized  countries, 
is  at  present  seeking  to  denationalize  the  Jewish  religion,  or  rather  to 
transform  it  into  a  universal  religion,  by  stripping  off  all  the  rites, 
practices,  and  ceremonies  which  possess  a  national,  as  distinguished 
from  a  purely  religious,  character.  "  Its  realization,"  wrote,  a  short 
time  since,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  representatives  of  the  new 
school  in  England,  Mr.  Claude  Montefiore,  "  would  put  Judaism  on 
the  same  footing  as  Christianity,  and  would  involve  the  removal  of 
the  present  preliminary  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  diffusion,  not  yet 
desired  by  all  reformers,  of  the  old  Jewish  religion  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Jewish  race."  In  this  way,  the  reproach  so  frequently  urged 
against  Judaism,  that  it  is  only  a  tribal  religion,  would  disappear,  and 
the  true  Chinese  wall,  which  separates  its  adherents  from  the  people 
among  whom  they  live,  would  fall  to  the  ground.  But  the  change 
cannot  be  made,  as  events  have  shown,  unless  Judaism  also  abandons 
those  positive  beliefs  which  are  irreconcilable  with  modern  science.1 

The  Jewish  religion  has  always  consisted  of  two  distinct  elements  : 
a  collection  of  doctrines,  in  which  the  belief  in  the  unity  of  God  is 

I.  Vide  an  article,  by  Mr.  Montefiore,  entitled  "Is  Judaism  a  Tribal  Religion?" 
in  the  Contemporary  Review,  of  November,  1S82. 


118  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

as  a  key-stone  to  the  arch ;  and  the  ceremonial  practices  peculiar  to 
it  as  a  special  system.  Regarded  from  a  doctrinal  point  of  view, 
reformed  Judaism,  according  to  Mr.  Montefiore,  affirms,  in  common 
with  orthodox  Judaism,  "  the  unity  of  God,  His  just  government,  the 
free  relation  of  every  man  to  God,  the  continual  progress  of  humanity 
as  a  whole,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  Divine  election  of  Israel, 
and  that  the  Jews,  under  the  will  of  God,  possess  a  specific  religious 
mission,  not  yet  entirely  fulfilled."  On  the  other  hand,  the  reforming 
party  reject  the  authority  of  the  Talmud,  the  literal  infallibility  of  the 
Bible,  comprising  the  Pentateuch,  the  belief  in  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah,  and  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  in  Palestine. 
While  they  hold,  moreover,  that  the  Bible  contains  the  essential 
spirit  of  Judaism,  they  contend  that  it  no  longer  contains  this  in  its 
entirety ;  and  they  do  not  hesitate  to  accept  the  most  advanced  con- 
clusions of  contemporary  criticism.  As  to  ceremonial  practices,  they 
openly  reject — with  the  exception  of  circumcision,  which  they  make 
optional  for  converts — all  the  ritualistic,  sanitary,  and  social  prescrip- 
tions which  are  not  possessed  of  an  exclusively  religious  significance, 
as  well  as  the  Jewish  laws  relative  to  marriage  and  the  regulations 
respecting  the  Levites.  Finally,  they  have  introduced  into  the 
synagogue  the  common  or  current  speech  of  the  worshippers,  and 
suppressed  the  greater  part  of  the  festivals  which  possessed  a  purely 
national  significance. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  may  be  asked  whether  Judaism  is  not 
in  a  condition  to  offer  to  Theists  of  Christian  origin  that  historical 
rallying-point  which,  according  to  Miss  F.  Power  Cobbe,  they  stand 
in  need  of.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  indeed,  that  the  Jewish  Refor- 
mation is  still  in  progress,  if  not  as  regards  dogma,  at  least  in  relation 
to  its  ceremonial  practices.  That  prescription  of  the  ancient  law 
which  is  most  repugnant  to  modern  ideas,  circumcision,  is  precisely 
the  institution  they  seem  to  find  the  greatest  difficulty  in  completely 
abolishing.  Nor  has  the  use  of  Hebrew  entirely  disappeared  from 
their  ritual,  while  the  Old  Testament  remains  the  book  of  devotion 
par  excellence,  and  the  only  one  used  in  the  services  of  the  synagogue. 
In  short,  Mr.  Montefiore  himself  declares  that  the  reformed  faith, 
while  desirous  of  becoming  a  universal  religion  in  form  as  well  as  in 
substance,  intends  to  remain  a  historical  development  of  ancient 
Judaism. 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF    CHRISTIANITY.  119 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  Reformed  Judaism  simply  maintains, 
with  respect  to  Ancient  Judaism,  the  position  occupied  by  Uni- 
tarianism,  or  even  by  the  Broad  Church  party,  in  relation  to  those 
Protestant  Churches  which  have  rerhained  faithful  to  orthodox 
theology.  Still,  as  Miss  Cobbe  observes,  if  the  reforming  movement 
continues  to  extend — and  such  an  extension  seems  to  be  a  question 
of  life  or  death  for  Judaism — it  will  undoubtedly  become  a  powerful 
auxiliary  of  Christian  Theism,  or  Theism  of  Christian  origin,  while  it 
will  even  be  capable  of  exercising  an  important  influence  on  the 
religious  future  of  contemporary  Society.1 

Now,  the  simple  belief  in  God  is  still  a  dogma,  however  little  we 
define  the  attributes  of  the  Divine  Being  and  make  of  this  definition 
the  creed  of  any  church.  But  if  we  admit  that  worship  is  merely  a 
question  of  feeling,  belonging  neither  to  reason  nor  faith,  we  must 
free  it  from  every  positive  fornlula,  no  matter  how  simple  and  com- 
prehensive this  may  be.  Setting  out  from  this  principle,  Mr.  Moncure 
D.  Conway,  a  gentleman  of  American  origin,  who  is  favourably  known 
in  English  literature,  has,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  presided  over  a 
Church  which  is  open  to  all  those  who  desire  to  satisfy  their  religious 
aspirations,  regardless  of  theological  and  metaphysical  differences  of 
belief,  with  the  sole  condition  that  they  do  not  raise  to  a  dogma  the 
non-existence  of  the  Deity.  Such  a  conception  embraces  not  only 
Theists  of  every  school,  but  also  Pantheists  and  the  Positivists  of  the 
school  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  with  all  the  sceptics  who  refuse  to  express 
an  opinion  with  regard  to  the  reality  of  a  Supreme  Being.  I  should 
hesitate  to  say,  indeed,  that  Materialists  might  not  find  a  place  in 
such .  a  scheme  of  thought,  since  it  excludes  none  but  professed 
Atheists. 

Mr.  Conway,  who  assumes  neither  the  title  of  reverend  nor  doctor, 
is  a  tall,  thin  man,  about  fifty  years  old,  of  robust  aspect,  greyish 
beard  and  keen  changeful  glance,  whose  whole  physiognomy  reveals 
his  transatlantic  origin.  Born  in  Virginia  and  descended  from  a  family 
of  planters  which  has  played  a  part  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States,  he  was  brought  up   in  that  branch  of  the  Methodist  body 

I.  Miss  Cobbe  relates  the  curious  fact  that,  at  Manchester,  some  twenty  young 
girls,  belonging  to  Unitarian  families,  have  married  Jews,  adopted  Judaism,  and 
even  taken  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  synagogue.  Vide  her  article, 
"  Progressive  Judaism,"  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  of  November,  1882. 


120  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

whose  members  go  forth  from  home  every  spring,  in  order  to  form 
those  religious  encampments  so  well  described  by  Bret  Harte  in  his 
stories  of  American  life.  Mr.  Conway  himself,  indeed,  in  a  sermon 
on  Revivalism,  draws  a  touching  picture  of  the  religious  associations 
of  his  childhood,  and  of  the  vain  attempts  he  made  to  share  in  the 
mental  exaltation  of  his  early  surroundings.  Having  remained  faith- 
ful to  the  Union  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  he  withdrew,  with  his 
young  wife,  into  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  he  organised,  into  a  free 
community,  his  father's  slaves  who  had  fled  from  Virginia.  He  then 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  order  to  defend  before  the  English  public,  by 
both  tongue  and  pen,  the  Federal  cause,  which  seemed  to  be  daily 
meeting  with  increased  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. In  the  course  of  this  campaign,  he  had  occasion  to  make  his 
voice  heard  several  times  at  South  Place  Chapel,  where  W.  J.  Fox  had 
long  been  the  minister.  Mr.  Fox  was  a  Unitarian  minister  who  had 
played  a  brilliant  part,  during  the  second  generation  of  this  century, 
in  the  Parliamentary  struggles  in  which  Bright  and  Cobden  were  such 
conspicuous  figures.  M.  Guizot  characterised  his  speeches  as  models 
of  political  eloquence.  Nor  was  he  less  advanced  in  his  religious 
than  in  his  political  opinions ;  he  was  in  reality  one  of  the  first 
Unitarian  ministers  who  openly  broke  with  the  supernatural,  and 
though  he  retained  the  name  of  Christian,  he  afterwards  remained 
isolated  from  the  Unitarian  body.  Unfortunately  for  his  congregation, 
when  age  had  compelled  him  to  retire,  they  could  not  find  a  preacher 
possessed  of  the  same  shade  of  opinions,  and  they  were  possibly  on 
the  eve  of  corporate  dissolution,  when  at  the  commencement  of  1864, 
they  made  choice  of  Mr.  Conway  for  their  minister. 

Under  the  guidance  of  the  young  American,  the  congregation  was 
not  slow  to  regain  the  cohesion  and  the  brilliant  position  of  previous 
years ;  but  this  was  not  done  without  following  that  course  of  evolu- 
tion which,  with  Fox,  had  caused  it  to  advance  beyond  Unitarianism, 
and  which,  with  Mr.  Conway,  was  to  carry  it  first  from  Christian 
Theism  to  pure  Theism,  and  then  to  a  form  of  faith  with  still  fewer 
limitations  :  Mr.  Conway  contends,  in  short,  that  the  religious  senti- 
ment may  and  must  be  separated  from  everything  of  the  nature  of 
dogma,  belief  or  hypothesis. 

South  Place  Chapel  is  but  a  few  minutes'  walk  from  Moorgate 
Street  Station  which,  on  the  occasion  of  my  visit,  I  reached  by  the 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  121 

undergound  railway.  In  common  with  a  large  number  of  Noncon- 
formist Chapels,  its  frontage  is  in  the  Greek  style.  The  interior 
possesses  a  certain  air  of  comfort  and  is  capable  of  seating  from  four 
to  five  hundred  persons.  The  organ  is  over  the  entrance.  On  each 
side  there  is  a  gallery  supported  by  slender  pillars.  A  large  platform, 
with  a  sort  of  desk  ornamented  by  two  brass  brackets,  serves  as  a 
pulpit.  Seats  furnished  with  red  cushions  and  well  supplied  with 
books  fill  all  the  available  space.  When  I  entered  at  a  little  past 
eleven  the  chapel  was  almost  empty,  but  scarcely  had  the  old  lady, 
who  acts  as  sacristan,  assigned  me  a  place  under  one  of  the  side 
galleries,  before  the  seats  began  to  fill  rapidly.  A  large  number  of 
ladies,  some  of  them  dressed  in  an  elegant  style,  agreeably  diversified 
the  earnest  and  intelligent  aspect  of  the  audience.  I  learnt  after- 
wards, that  the  congregation  is  chiefly  drawn  from  the  ranks  of 
scientists  and  professional  men,  with  a  sprinkling  from  a  few  wealthy 
city  families.  It  may  be  remarked  here  that  South  Place  Chapel  re- 
presents the  extreme  left  in  its  political  as  well  as  in  its  religious 
tendencies,  while  at  Langham  Hall,  on  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Voysey 
has  retained  in  his  liturgy  the  Prayers  for  the  Church,  the  Queen,  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  &c. 

Shortly  after  the  entrance  of  the  congregation,  Mr.  Conway  ascended 
the  platform  in  non  clerical  costume,  turned  on  the  gas  in  order  to 
get  more  light,  and,  having  opened  a  large  book,  gave  out  the  number 
of  the  hymn  by  which  the  service  was  to  be  commenced.  The 
singing  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  a  well-trained  choir,  and  the 
readings  were  chosen  by  the  minister  from  one  of  his  own  works,  the 
Sacred  Anthology,  in  which  he  has  collected  with  great  discrimina- 
tion more  than  700  passages  drawn  from  various  ancient  authors. 
The  Bible  figures  there  side  by  side  with  the  Koran  and  the  Vedas, 
and  Confucius  is  hand  and  hand  with  St.  Paul.  This  work,  Mr. 
Conway  told  me,  is  used  in  about  a  dozen  congregations — probably 
among  those  Unitarians  who  have  reached  the  confines  of  Theism. 
As  to  the  hymns,  they  are  contained  in  a  small  and  very  elegantly 
bound  volume,  Hymns  and  Anthems,  and  amount  to  more  than  500 
in  number.  The  first  150  were  compiled  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Fox;  the  rest 
have  been  added  by  Mr.  Conway.  The  latter  told  me  he  had  chosen 
from  preference  such  compositions  as  avoid  all  mention  of  a  personal 
and  conscious  God.     He  rejects  prayer,  first  because  it  so  easily 


122  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

degenerates  into  an  illogical  appeal  for  change  in  the  order  of  nature, 
and  secondly  because  by  invoking  the  Divinity,  we  seem  to  attribute 
to  him  sentiments,  if  not  organs,  analogous  to  our  own.  He  has 
therefore  replaced  it  in  his  order  of  service  by  "Meditations"  or 
moral  and  religious  monologues,  which  tend  to  elevate  the  soul  with- 
out making  a  direct  appeal  to  the  Deity. 

When  Mr.  Conway  had  finished  his  second  "  meditation,"  the 
organ  was  played  for  a  short  time  in  a  subdued  tone,  to  give  the  con- 
gregation an  opportunity  of  entering  into  themselves  and  reflecting 
upon  the  words  of  their  minister ;  then  the  choir  suddenly  burst  forth 
into  a  well  executed  anthem  by  a  composer  with  whose  name  I  am 
not  acquainted.  Then  came  the  turn  for  the  sermon  or  discourse. 
Mr.  Conway  had  chosen  for  the  occasion  a  text  of  the  most  secular 
kind:  public  health.  Still,  while  remaining  wholly  on  practical 
ground,  he  took  care  to  skilfully  describe  the  relations  which  subsist 
between  health  of  body  and  health  of  soul,  in  conformity  with  the 
Protestant  adage,  that  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness.  Besides,  it  is 
one  of  his  fundamental  principles  that  to  advance  science  is  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  religion. 

Mr.  Conway  sometimes  lends  his  pulpit  to  noted  foreigners.  Among 
those  who  have  thus  delivered  addresses  there,  to  say  nothing  of 
Unitarian  ministers  and  University  professors,  we  may  mention  an 
American,  Colonel  Wentworth  Higginson,  and  an  Indian  Theist,  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Council  in  the  island  of  Ceylon.  One  evening 
a  week,  the  members  of  the  congregation  meet  in  the  chapel,  which 
is  transformed  into  a  debating  hall,  in  order  to  discuss  some  moral  or 
political  question.  In  common  with  the  majority  of  Nonconformist 
congregations  drawn  from  similar  classes,  the  South  Place  congrega- 
tion organize  periodical  Soirees  for  music  and  conversation,  with 
picnics  into  the  country  and  water  parties  on  the  Thames  at  the  right 
season.  In  this  way  the  Chapel  is  not  only  a  religious  home,  but  a 
centre  or  rallying  point  for  the  cultivation  of  social  relations  among 
its  members.  Meetings  of  this  kind  are  generally  announced  from 
the  pulpit,  and  tickets  for  them  sold  in  the  vestry. 

Some  years  ago,  Mr.  Conway  devoted  his  Sunday  evenings  to  a 
second  congregation,  located  in  a  small  iron  Church,  situate  in 
St.  Paul's  Road,  Camden  Town,  which,  from  the  simplicity  of  its 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  123 

architecture,  reminded  me  of  the  wooden  churches  of  the  Scandi- 
navian Peninsula.  This  congregation  was  formed  by  a  colony  of 
Free  Christians,  who  had  migrated,  so  to  speak,  from  Clarence  Road, 
in  consequence  of  a  disagreement  on  the  choice  of  a  minister. 
Mr.  Conway,  whom  they  had  invited  .to  take  charge  of  the  move- 
ment, succeeded  so  well  in  gradually  bringing  them  over  to  his  ideas 
that,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  in  1875,  they  had  abandoned  the  name 
"  Free  Christian  "  and  adopted  the  same  kind  of  service  as  that  in  use 
at  South  Place  Chapel. 

This  circumstance  affords  a  striking  illustration  of  the  facilities 
which  Protestantism  affords  for  advancing,  by  a  gradual  and  almost 
insensible  transition,  to  forms  of  worship  more  in  harmony  with  the 
continued  development  of  the  reason  of  the  individual.  The  Roman 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  has  its  limits  clearly  circumscribed,  and  if 
anyone  passes  beyond  these,  it  is  at  the  expense  of  an  abrupt  and 
often  painful  process,  in  order  to  reach  at  a  bound  the  utmost  limits 
of  scepticism,  or  at  least  to  become  the  prey  of  religious  indifference. 
But  among  Protestants,  in  spite  of  the  dogmatic  bonds  in  which  they, 
in  some  cases,  attempt  to  embody  their  doctrines,  the  churches  of 
to-day  are  as  landmarks,  destined  to  indicate  the  stages  traversed  by 
religious  thought  in  its  evolution  towards  a  larger  and  freer  ideal. 
Hence  it  is  possible  for  every  one  to  halt  at  the  precise  point  of  this 
evolution,  which  corresponds  with  his  own  measure  of  moral  and 
intellectual  culture, 

I  attended  two  services  in  the  St.  Paul's  Road  Chapel.  The  form 
of  worship  was  identical  with  that  in  Mr.  Conway's  other  Chapel, 
except  in  so  far  as  the  absence  of  an  organ  led  to  the  omission  of  the 
anthem.  The  singing,  thus  without  an  accompaniment,  seemed  to  me 
of  a  less  excellent  order,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  congregation 
joined  heartily  in  the  hymns.  On  each  occasion,  I  found  a  congre- 
gation of  from  200  to  250  persons,  who,  judging  from  their  appearance, 
were  probably  drawn  from  lower  strata  of  Society  than  those  at  South 
Place,  though  still  belonging  to  the  middle  classes.  The  service 
struck  me  as  being  possessed  of  more  interest  and  fervour  than  in  the 
older  congregation,  almost  all  the  people  having  service-books,  and 
no  one  remaining  seated  during  the  singing. 

I  must  add,  however,  that  the  St.  Paul's  Road  congregation  is  no 
longer  in  existence,  and  that  even  its  Chapel  has  disappeared.     It  is 


124  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

probable,  indeed,  that  after  being  sold  and  taken  down,  the  little 
edifice  was  re-erected  elsewhere,  and  may  perhaps  serve  to-day  as 
the  quarters  of  some  regiment  of  the  forces  of  "General"  Booth,  in 
his  campaign  against  the  army  of  Satan. 

Mr.  Conway  lays  it  down  as  an  axiomatic  truth,  that  an  instinct 
compels  us  to  render  homage  to  the  superior  principle,  generally 
embodied  in  the  idea  of  God ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  he  thinks  we 
should  not  press  this  notion  too  far,  for  fear  of  identifying  it  with  a 
dogmatic  formula  which  may  be  found  on  the  morrow  in  antagonism 
with  some  recent  verification  of  science.  For  him  God  is  not  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  human  ideal.  This  ideal,  men  are  but  too 
ready  to  project  outside  of  themselves,  as  a  concrete  existence,  and 
to  clothe  with  attributes  which  crystallize  into  dogmas.  Now,  how- 
ever valuable  a  doctrine  may  be  as  an  individual  conviction,  it  is  no 
sooner  embodied  in  a  dogma,  he  contends,  than  it  ceases  to  be  true 
and  fruitful — were  it  even  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  God  or  the 
immortality  of  the  soul :  "  If  the  idea  of  God  have  value,"  says  he, 
"'tis  as  the  supreme  expression  of  an  individual  development  of 
thought.  If  immortality  be  a  noble  idea  it  is  as  the  flower  of  a  soul's 
experience.  Prescribe  them,  dictate  them,  impose  them  by  bribe  or 
threat,  however  refined,  they  become  mere  phrases,  lifeless  traditions, 
transmitted  from  crumbled  systems  of  antiquity,  not  only  choking  the 
well  of  spiritual  life,  but  heaping  rubbish  in  the  Jacob's  Well  of 
opinion  itself."1 

It  is,  however,  in  a  sermon  preached  by  Mr.  Conway  in  May,  1880, 
on  the  Religion  of  Humanity,  that  I  have  found  perhaps  the  most 
complete  exposition  of  his  religious  beliefs,  and  in  which  the  trace  of 
Hegelian  ideas  is  easy  of  recognition.  He  remarks  there  that  history 
as  a  whole  may  be  summed  up  as  the  struggle  of  humanity  against 
external  nature,  but  that  our  sentiments  have  always  been  on  the  side 
of  our  adversary.  After  transforming  the  forces  of  nature  into  Gods, 
we  assigned  to  them,  as  their  kingdom,  all  that  transcended  our  own 
control,  so  much  so  that  the  true  domain  of  humanity  has  always 
been  in  opposition  to,  and  in  conflict  with  that  of  Nature.  At  a  later 
time  the  divinities,  which  were  the  personifications  of  inorganic  forces, 
gave  place  to  abstract  dogmas ;  but  these  dogmas  themselves  merely 
translated  into  the  language  of   theology  the  relentless  activities  of 

1.  Jacob's  Well.     A  Sermon,  1882. 


BEYOND    THE    PALE    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  125 

nature.  Is  it  not  a  great  misfortune  to  see  men  thus  offering  their 
adoration  to  what  genuine  religion  commands  them  to  combat  and  to 
subjugate  ?  "  We  can  little  dream  what  a  reinforcement  of  the  human 
work  it  would  be  if  all  the  devotion  and  wealth  lavished  on  deities 
and  dogmas  were  directed  to  aid  and  animate  man  in  his  tremendous 
task  of  humanising  his  world."1  It  is  therefore  high  time  for  us  to 
transfer  our  veneration  and  our  worship  to  those  moral  and  intellectual 
forces  which  aid  us  in  our  struggle  with  the  blind  forces  of  the  world, 
and  which  constitute  as  a  whole  the  essence  of  humanity. 

Does  it  follow  that  there  is  no  God,  either  of  or  in  nature — that 
there  is  neither  above  nor  beyond  us  any  Power  that  tends  to  the 
realization  of  the  Good  ?  The  religion  of  humanity  answers  :  "  Yes, 
there  is  a  God  in  nature — a  God  and  Ruler  of  nature ;  but  that  Divine 
Parent  is  nowhere  discoverable,  except  in  the  spirit  of  humanity.  You 
may  cry  for  help  to  glowing  suns  and  circling  stars,  to  gravitation  and 
electricity,  to  ocean  and  sky,  or  to  all  of  them  together,  but  no  help 
or  ray  of  pity  will  you  get  until  you  have  turned  to  lean  on  the  heart 
and  arm  of  human  love  and  strength ;  for  these  are  the  answers  of 
the  universe  to  your  cry.  The  proof  of  love  in  nature  outside  you  is 
a  loving  heart  inside  you.  But  we  must  credit  nature  with  what  has 
come  out  of  it.     .  .     Out  of  it,  all  was  evolved  :  the  thinker  to 

warn  us ;  the  man  of  science  to  show  us  the  safe  path ;  the  physician 
to  heal  us ;  the  artist  to  beguile  us  on  the  way ;  the  poet  to  cheer  us ; 
the  friend,  the  lover,  the  father,  the  mother,  who  try  to  guard  us,  or, 
if  we  are  wounded,  seek  to  heal  our  wounds.  All  these  were  evolved 
out  of  nature.  They  show  us  nature  pointing  us  to  humanity,  the 
crown  and  hope  of  nature's  own  self,  the  power  which  nature  has 
created  for  its  own  deliverance  —in  distrusting  which  we  distrust  the 
only  God  in  nature,  the  God  manifest  within  us  and  in  the  sweet 
humanities  around  us."1 

I  may  add  that  as  a  speaker,  Mr.  Conway,  though  he  does  not  aim 
at  eloquence,  possesses  a  very  clear  and  above  all  a  very  moving 
voice.  Hence  he  exercises  an  ascendency  which  extends  beyond  his 
immediate  religious  surroundings.  He  has,  without  doubt,  contributed, 
for  instance,  to  the  formation  in  the  Unitarian  Church,  of  that  group 
which  I  have  already  mentioned,  as  identifying  the  conception  of  God 
with  the  ideal  of  humanity.  There  is  to  be  seen  among  its  members, 
I.    What  is  the  Religion  of  Humanity  ? 


126  RATIONALISTIC   CONGREGATIONS 

indeed,  the  same  tendency  to  reject  every  dogmatic  formula  in  favour 
of  an  exclusive  appeal  to  the  manifestations  of  sentiment  and  imagina- 
tion, the  same  claim  that  religious  services  should  possess  a  practical 
character,  and  the  same  optimist  confidence  in  the  future  of  humanity. 

In  his  estimate  of  the  person  and  work  of  Christ,  Mr.  Conway 
follows  in  some  measure  the  methods  of  Unitarianism.  Among  the 
illustrious  names  inscribed  in  gilt  letters  on  the  walls  of  his  chapel, 
that  of  Jesus  occupies  the  place  of  honour  above  the  reading  desk, 
and  by  the  side  of  it  are  the  names  of  Shakespeare,  Socrates,  Voltaire 
and  Moses.  In  several  of  his  sermons,  he  speaks  of  the  founder  of 
Christianity  as  a  "representative  man,"  and  he  neglects  no  opportunity 
of  characterising  him  as  the  religious  reformer  par  excellence.  All,  he 
thinks,  that  is  most  elevated  or  comprehensive  in  the  New  Testament, 
all  that  is  best  calculated  to  strengthen  the  mind  and  heart,  all,  in  a 
word,  that  is  conformable  to  the  views  held  at  South  Place  Chapel,  is 
really  the  authentic  work  of  Jesus.  On  the  contrary,  whatever  is  to 
be  found  there  of  a  narrow  and  irrational  character  and  therefore 
opposed  to  the  tendencies  of  our  epoch,  must  have  been  introduced 
by  the  Evangelists,  who  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  understand  the 
Master.1  Here  Mr.  Conway  speaks  more  like  a  Christian  than  some 
among  the  Unitarians. 

Now,  in  opposition  to  this,  those  Unitarians  who  seem  nearest  to 
an  avowal  of  the  "  Religion  of  Humanity  "  do  not  hesitate  to  retain 
the  name  of  God  for  that  ideal  which  Mr.  Conway  treats  as  an  imper- 
sonal and  nameless  Power,  or  even  as  purely  subjective.  Hence  there 
is,  with  certain  of  the  younger  ministers  belonging  to  the  advanced 

I.  Thus  in  his  Jacob's  Well,  in  reproducing  the  conversation  of  the  Master  with 
the  Samaritan  woman,  he  describes,  in  excellent  language,  the  sublime  beauty  of 
the  words  which  John  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  :  "  The  hour  cometh  when  ye 
shall  neither  in  this  mountain  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem,  worship  the  Father.  .  . 
But  the  hour  cometh  and  now  is  when  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father 
in  spirit  and  in  truth."  Now  these  two  sentences  are  separated  by  the  verse  which 
affirms  that  "salvation  is  of  Jesus."  Mr.  Conway  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  this 
verse  must  have  been  interpolated  by  the  narrator,  and  he  adds  that  this  interposition 
of  bigotry  and  superstition  proves  how  far  even  the  evangelist,  most  comprehensive 
in  his  tendencies,  was  from  being  able  after  the  lapse  of  three  or  four  generations, 
to  rise  to  the  level  of  Jesus.  Further,  the  fact  that  the  three  synoptical  evangelists 
have  omitted  the  entire  episode,  although  they  were  nearer  to  Jesus  in  point  of  time, 
probably  arose  from  their  being  too  Jewish  to  appreciate  this  abandonment  of  the 
religious  monoply  of  Jerusalem.  With  this  system  of  critical  thought  it  is  easy  for 
Mr.  Conway  to  justify  his  statement  "that  the  real  issue  is  between  Christ  and 
Christianity." 


BEYOND   THE   PALE   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  127 

section  of  Unitarianism — as,  for  instance,  with  the  Rev.  Frank  Walters, 
of  Glasgow — a  combination  of  religious  elements,  which  enables  them 
to  unite,  in  their  preaching,  all  the  results  of  modern  inquiry  with  the 
spiritual  power  comprised  in  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being. 

To  sum  up  my  remarks,  the  religious  organization  over  which 
Mr.  Conway  presides  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  Rev.  C.  Voysey's 
"  Theistic  Church "  that  Unitarianism  does  to  Liberal  Anglicanism. 
In  vain  will  Mr.  Voysey  urge  that  his  Church  retains  no  dogmas,  but 
merely  perfectible  beliefs ;  for  his  programme  will  none  the  less  result 
in  the  exclusion  of  those  who  believe  in  Revelation,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  those  who  decline  to  affirm  the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  on 
the  other — in  a  word,  the  orthodox,  together  with  Pantheists  and 
Agnostics.  South  Place  congregation,  however,  forms  an  open  Church 
to  the  full  extent  of  the  term.  Not  that  the  minister  is  destitute  of 
all  beliefs,  or  even  dogmas,  as  to  the  nature  of  the  universe,  the  in- 
definite perfectability  of  human  society,  and  the  like.  But  he  does 
not  seek  to  establish  between  the  members  of  his  flock  any  other 
bond  than  that  of  spiritual  communion,  founded  on  the  identity  of 
the  moral,  religious,  and  humanitarian  sentiments,  and  this  he  does 
regardless  of  all  theoretical  divergence.  His  congregation  has  a 
further  advantage  over  that  at  Langham  Hall,  in  the  possession  of 
a  historic  past,  a  flourishing  budget,  and  a  building  adapted  to  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  used.  And  yet,  if  I  ventured  to  give  an 
opinion  of  its  future,  I  should  hesitate  to  affirm  that  its  existence  is 
not  bound  up  with  the  life  of  its  present  minister.2 

It  is  not  every  day,  indeed,  that  a  Moncure  Conway  is  to  be  found 
to  succeed  a  W.  J.  Fox,  for  the  drawback  which  attaches  to  brilliant 
personalities  is  that  when  they  adopt  neither  a  definite  doctrine  nor  a 
collective  organization,  they  at  last  absorb  the  groups  of  which  they 
assume  the  direction.  Mr.  Conway  seems  to  have  felt  this  himself 
when,  in  a  recent  letter  to  the  Boston  Index,1  in  relation,  it  is  true,  to 
Positivism  and  Theism,  he  showed  that  the  religious  development  of 
England  is  rather  along  the  lines  of  existing  Unitarianism  than  in  any 
other  direction. 

1.  Since  the  text  of  this  work  was  written,  Mr.  Conway  has  resigned  the  South 
Place  pulpit,  but  as  yet  (October,  1884)  no  successor  has  been  appointed,  though  a 
gentleman  is  spoken  of  as  likely  to  prove  the  elect  of  the  congregation. —  Translator. 

2.  The  Index,  of  June  the  8th,  1S82. 


CHAPTER       VI. 


COMTISM    AND    SECULARISM. 


The  philosophical  and  religious  system  of  Auguste  Comte — Worship  of  the  Grand- 
Etre,  Humanity — Organization  of  the  Positivist  priesthood — The  new  calendar — 
Comtism  in  England — Dr.  Congreve  and  the  Positivist  liturgy  of  Chapel  Street — 
The  secession  of  1878 — Professor  Beesley,  Dr.  Bridges,  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison, 
and  the  worship  of  Humanity  at  Fleur-de-Lis — The  London  Positivist  Society — 
Sincere  faith  and  mental  discipline  of  the  Comptists — The  attempt  to  unite  in  a 
common  conception  the  Grand-Etre  of  Comte  with  the  Unknowable  of  Herbert 
Spencer — A  religion  which  proscribes  the  religious  sentiment — Meaning  of  Secu- 
larism—Its self-satisfied  ignorance  of  the  super-sensible — Utilitarian  character  of 
its  morality — The  National  Secular  Society  and  Mr.  Bradlaugh's  aggressive 
attitude — Mr.  G.  J.  Holyoake's  secession  and  the  establishment  of  the  British 
Secular  Union — Associations  for  the  free  use  of  the  Sunday — The  Secular  Liturgy, 
with  a  Preface  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh — Secular  religious  services  a  proof  of  the 
religiousness  of  the  English  mind — Conclusions  suggested  by  the  oscillations 
between  faith  and  scepticism  in  England — Increasing  purification  of  the  religious 
sentiment  and  the  gradual  emancipation  of  Thought. 


It  may  have  been  supposed  by  the  reader  that  with  Mr.  Conway's 
congregation  we  had  reached  the  extreme  limits  of  religious  organiza- 
tions, and  that  beyond  it  there  could  be  no  possibility  of  worship, 
since  there  is  no  longer  a  recognition  of  the  Divine  existence.  Still, 
if  by  religion  we  are  to  understand  a  theory  of  life  which  adopts  as  its 
central  fact  man's  sense  of  dependence  upon  a  Superior  Being,  this 
word  may  certainly  be  applied  to  the  Worship  of  Humanity  which  has 
been  established  in  England  by  Comtism,  or  to  speak  more  definitely, 
by  that  fraction  of  Positivism  which  has  remained  faithful  to  the 
religious  as  well  as  to  the  philosophical  doctrines  of  Auguste  Comte. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Comte  that  religion  alone  is  capable  of  leading 
to  the  predominance  of  altruism  over  egoism  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual :  that  is  to  say,  of  making  social  considerations  more  powerful 
than  personal  interests.  To  accomplish  this  mission,  however,  it  was 
necessary,  he  held,  that  religion  should  become  independent,  not  only 
of  all  supernatural  beliefs,  but  also  of  all  theological  ideas,  so  that  it 


130  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

might  simply  represent  that  condition  of  spiritual  unity  resulting  from 
the  convergence  of  all  our  thoughts  and  of  all  our  actions  towards  the 
service  of  Humanity.1 

Every  form  of  religion,  he  remarks,  comprises  three  essential 
elements:  dogma  which  addresses  itself  to  reason,  worship  which 
makes  an  appeal  to  sentiment,  and  ethical  precepts  which  govern  the 
action  of  the  individual.  In  the  Religion  of  Humanity,  dogma  is 
made  identical  with  the  positive  philosophy,  that  is  to  say,  with  science 
considered  as  the  study  of  law  in  nature,  to  the  exclusion  of  first  and 
final  causes.  As  to  worship  or  sociolatry,  it  is  made  to  consist  of 
homage  rendered  to  the  Grand-Etre,  Humanity,  in  other  words  to  the 
totality  of  human  beings,  past,  present  and  future,  with  the  exception 
of  the  mere  parasites  of  life  who  have  not  co-operated  usefully  in  the 
world's  common  work,  but  inclusive  of  the  useful  animals,  the  worthy 
helpers  of  human  life.  Lastly,  the  ethical  precepts  of  the  Comtist 
creed  constitute  a  collection  of  hygienic,  moral,  social  and  political 
prescriptions,  in  which  its  originator  seems  to  have  thrown  together, 
pell-mell,  ideas  borrowed  from  all  the  socialist  systems  of  the  day. 
An  extreme  tendency  to  authoritative  prescription  prevades  these 
rules  of  life,  and  the  whole  are  cemented  together  by  a  sense  of  duty 
to  Humanity  on  the  one  side,  and  by  the  absolute  authority  of  the 
Positivist  priesthood  on  the  other. 

Worship  is  made  to  possess  three  forms :  personal,  domestic  and 
public.  Personal  worship  (le  culte  intime)  is  to  be  rendered  to  those 
who  are  related  to  us  by  blood  or  affection.  It  consists  of  three  daily 
acts  of  prayer — one  on  rising  in  the  morning,  a  second  in  the  midst 
of  our  ordinary  occupations,  whether  they  are  practical  or  theoretical, 
and  the  last  at  the  approach  of  sleep.  The  first  two  are  to  take  place 
before  the  domestic  altar,  instituted  according  to  our  richest  memories, 
and  in  the  attitude  of  veneration ;  the  last  should  be  performed  after 
we  retire  to  rest  and  continued  as  far  as  possible  till  the  coming  on  of 
sleep.  To  prayer  there  may  be  added  the  use  of  various  accessories 
"borrowed  from  the  aesthetic  treasures  of  humanity,"  such  as  songs, 
pictures  and  the  like. 

I .  Comte's  religious  views  are  to  be  found  in  his  Systetne  de  Politique  Positive  or 
Treatise  on  Sociology,  which  institutes  the  Religion  of  Humanity  (Paris,  1851-54), 
as  well  as  in  his  Catechisme  Positiviste  or  Summarized  Exposition  of  the  Universal 
Religion  (Paris,  1852). 


COMTISM    AND    SECULARISM.  131 

Domestic  worship  consists  of  nine  "social  sacraments:"  ist,  Pre- 
sentation, in  which  the  child  receives  the  name  of  a  "theoretical"  and 
also  the  name  of  a  "  practical "  model  or  pattern  saint — he  will  choose 
the  "artistic"  himself  as  he  grows  up;  2nd,  Initiation,  at  14;  3rd, 
Admission,  at  2 1 ;  4th,  Destination  or  the  final  choice  of  an  avoca- 
tion, at  28;  5th,  Marriage,  beginning  at  29  with  men,  and  at  21  for 
women — neither  widows  nor  widowers  can  re-marry ;  6th,  Maturity, 
at  42,  the  age  of  complete  cerebral  development;  7th,  Retirement 
from  active  life,  at  63  ;  8th,  Transformation,  a  sort  of  extreme  unction 
in  which  the  priest  mingling  the  regrets  of  society  with  the  tears  of 
the  family,  worthily  commemorates  the  life  which  is  about  to  close ; 
and  9th,  Incorporation,  seven  years  after  death,  when  judgment  is 
pronounced  on  the  deceased,  in  conformity  with  the  custom  of  ancient 
Egypt.  According  to  the  sentence  thus  pronounced,  the  remains  are 
to  be  cast  into  an  obscure  place  designed  for  reprobates,  with  the 
bodies  of  criminals,  suicides,  and  duellists,  or  on  the  other  hand,  de- 
posited "in  a  sacred  wood,"  where  a  simple  inscription  is  to  be  placed 
on  the  tomb,  with  a  bust  or  statue,  in  harmony  with  the  degree  of 
honour  attained. 

Public  worship  is  to  be  celebrated  in  churches  placed  among  the 
tombs  of  the  elite,  and  so  built  that  the  worshippers  may  have  their 
gaze  directed  towards  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  which  "the  common 
voice  of  the  past  has  long  identified  with  Paris."  A  woman  of  30, 
holding  her  son  in  her  arms  is  to  symbolize  the  Grand-Etre,  or  Hu- 
manity. The  same  emblem  figures  upon  a  white  and  green  banner, 
which  is  to  be  used  in  processions,  and  to  bear  on  the  other  side  the 
sacred  formula  of  Positivism  :  Vivre  pour  autreir,  F amour  pour 
principle,  Vordre  pour  base,  le progr'es pour  but.1  The  reader  will  judge 
for  himself  how  far  Professor  Huxley  was  justified  in  saying  that  the 
Positivist  faith  was  Catholicism  minus  Christianity ;  to  which  remark 
an  adherent  of  Comtism  replied  that  it  was  Catholicism  plus  science. 

In  addition  to  its  religious  addresses,  Positivism  has  its  various 
festivals,  which  bear  a  direct  relation  to  its  reformed  calendar.  This 
calendar,  which  is  much  more  logical  than  that  in  common  use,  con- 
tains thirteen  months  of  twenty-eight  days,  with  a  complementary  day 
each  year,  and  a  second  of  such  days  in  the  Leap  Year.     Each  month 

1.  "We  live  for  others:  love  is  our  principle,  order  our  method,  progress 
our  aim." 


132  COMTISM    AND   SECULARISM. 

is  divided  into  four  weeks  of  seven  days,  and  the  months  themselves 
are  dedicated  respectively  to  Moses,  Homer,  Aristotle,  Archimedes, 
Csesar,  St.  Paul,  Charlemagne,  Dante,  Gutenberg,  Shakespeare, 
Descartes,  Frederick  the  Second,  and  Bichat.  The  days  of  the  week 
(Maridi,  Patridi,  Filidi,  Fratridi,  Domidi,  Matndi,  Humanidi)  have 
also  names  of  "saints"  borrowed  from  the  list  of  illustrious  persons 
who  have  rendered  service  to  humanity.  Comte  modestly  declined  to 
inscribe  his  own  name  on  the  roll  of  the  world's  illustrious  sons,  but  the 
omission  has  been  made  good  by  his  followers,  who  have  instituted 
festivals  commemorative  of  his  birth  and  death,  in  his  old  apartments, 
Rue  Mons.  le  Prince,  at  Paris.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  though  he 
has  placed  the  names  of  Hercules,  Haroun-al-Raschid,  St.  Theresa, 
Innocent  the  Third,  and  Joseph  de  Maistre  on  the  roll  in  question, 
he  has  omitted  the  name  of  Christ. 

The  complementary  day  of  the  calendar  is  designed  as  a  universal 
festival  of  the  dead,  and  the  additional  day  of  the  Leap  Year  forms 
the  festival  of  Reprobates,  which  has  been  specially  instituted  for  the 
reprobation  of  the  three  principal  traitors  to  progress,  Julian  the 
Apostate,  Philip  the  Second,  and  Bonaparte.  The  Positivist  era 
dates  from  the  destruction  of  the  Bastille  in  1789,  and  its  calendar  is 
intended  for  use  in  the  organization  of  the  concrete  worship  of 
Humanity ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  worship  of  the  Grand-Etre,  adored 
in  the  person  of  a  few  individuals  who  are  worthy  of  being  regarded 
as  typical  of  the  best  in  humanity.  But,  in  addition  to  this,  an 
abstract  form  of  worship  is  instituted,  in  which  the  worshipper  no 
longer  bows  before  this  or  that  historical  personage,  but  before  some 
form  of  human  relationship,  such  as  marriage,  paternity,  woman's 
character  and  influence,  the  priesthood,  and  the  like. 

The  most  original  and  perhaps  the  most  severely  criticised  feature 
of  the  Comtist  system,  is  its  conception  of  a  priesthood  which  forms 
a  true  theocracy  without  a  Theos.  No  order  of  society,  says  Comte, 
can  be  maintained  and  developed  without  some  kind  of  priesthood. 
Hence  he  advocates  the  desirability  of  three  orders  of  clergy,  at  the 
rate  of  one  "spiritual  functionary"  for  every  6000  persons.  This 
priesthood,  sovereignly  directed  by  a  High-Priest  of  Humanity  resident 
at  Paris,  would  have  the  exclusive  charge  of  education,  of  developing 
"  the  higher  branches  of  theorectical  science,  of  cultivating  poetry 
and  practicing  medicine,  and  lastly  of  giving  a  moral  tone  to  the 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  133 

government  of  the  Western  Republic,  which  will  be  concentrated  in 
the  hands  of  some  few  bankers  ! 

Anyone  who  knew  Comte  simply  by  this  exposition  of  his  social  and 
religious  system,  would  be  tempted  to  see  in  it,  either  a  Utopia 
deliberately  devised  by  some  wit,  or  else  a  scheme  which  originated 
among  the  lunatics  at  Charenton.  And  yet,  to-day,  some  twenty-five 
years  after  the  death  of  its  author,  the  Comptist  system  is  fully  ac- 
cepted by  groups  of  intelligent  and  sincere  men  in  France,  England, 
Ireland,  Sweden,  the  United  States,  Brazil,  &c.  Among  its  adherents, 
in  England  more  especially,  there  are  men  who  occupy  the  front  rank 
in  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the  country.  Certainly  Comte  him- 
self was  anything  but  a  visionary  or  an  impostor ;  and  no  one  can 
study  his  modest  and  laborious  life  without  feeling  a  genuine  esteem 
for  him  as  a  thinker  of  the  first  order,  who  in  spite  of  his  caprices  and 
oddities  was  capable  of  exercising  a  complete  fascination  upon  those 
who  surrounded  him.  Besides,  if  the  philosophical  principles  of 
Positivism  are  accepted,  its  religious  doctrines  appear  far  less  arbitrary 
and  strange  than  at  first  sight  one  is  apt  to  suppose  them. 

England  early  showed  a  willingness  to  accept  the  religious  as  weH 
as  the  philosophical  doctrines  of  Positivism.  It  is  true,  Stuart  Mill 
rejected  the  former,  and  that  he  slightly  modified  even  the  latter  in 
order  to  adapt  them  to  English  ideas.  Still  others  accepted  the 
system  of  the  French  philosopher  in  its  entirety,  and  among  them  were 
Dr.  Richard  Congreve,  an  Oxford  Professor,  and  Dr.  Bridges,  the 
Inspector-General  of  Manufactures.  On  the  death  of  Comte,  in  1857, 
when  his  executors  had  accepted  Mons.  P.  Lafitte  as  their  leader  ad 
interim,  Dr.  Congreve,  who  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  English 
branch  of  the  Positivist  Church,  drew  together  its  London  adherents 
into  a  building  in  Chapel  Street,  where  he  gradually  organised  the 
Worship  of  Humanity.  This  "Church,"  which  I  visited  in  1875, 
resembles  an  ordinary  Dissenting  place  of  worship,  and  the  visitor 
might  take  it  for  such,  were  it  not  for  the  presence  on  its  walls  of 
thirteen  plaster  casts  of  those  who  have  given  their  names  to  the 
months  of  the  calendar.  The  service,  which  at  present  takes  place 
every  Sunday,  consists  of  hymns,  pieces  of  music,  readings,  and  a 
sermon  or  lecture,  with  prayers  to  the  Grand-Etre,  as  well  as  thanks- 
givings addressed  to  the  most  meritorious  types  of  humanity. 


134  COMTISM    AND    SECULARISM. 

Here  is  a  summary  of  the  curious  liturgy  which  Dr.  Congreve  has 
composed  for  the  celebration  of  the  festival  of  Humanity,  which  is 
fixed  for  the  first  of  January  by  the  Comtist  Calendar.  The  ceremony 
begins  by  an  invocation  :  that  is  to  say,  by  the  reading  of  the  sacred 
formulary  I  have  already  mentioned.  Then  follows  a  reading  from 
the  Imitation,  after  which  comes  a  collect,  in  which  the  officiating 
minister  addresses  himself  directly  to  humanity  in  these  terms : — 
"  Thou  Power  Supreme,  who  hast  hitherto  guided  thy  children  under 
other  names,  but  in  this  generation  hast  come  to  thy  own  in  thy  own 
proper  person,  revealed  for  all  ages  to  come  by  thy  servant  Auguste 
Comte,  we  praise  thee,"  &c.  (The  Religion  of  Humanity,  page  2.) 

After  this  collect,  the  following  dialogue  in  relation  to  humanity 
takes  place  between  minister  and  congregation  : — 

Priest — We  bow  before  thee  in  thankfulness, 

People — As  children  of  thy  past. 

Priest — We  adore  thee  in  hope, 

People — As  thy  ministers  and  stewards  for  the  future. 

Priest — We  would  commune  with  thee  humbly  in  prayer, 

People — As  thy  servants  in  the  present. 

All — May  our  worship,  as  our  lives,  grow  more  and  more  worthy 
of  thy  great  name. 

The  sermon  being  over  and  another  prayer  having  been  said,  the 
service  is  brought  to  a  close  by  the  following  benediction :  "  The 
Faith  of  Humanity,  the  Hope  of  Humanity,  the  Love  of  Humanity, 
bring  you  comfort  and  teach  you  sympathy,  give  you  peace  in  your- 
selves and  peace  with  others  now  and  for  ever. — Amen."  This  liturgy, 
as  the  reader  will  have  seen,  draws  largely  upon  the  spirit  and  even 
the  text  of  the  Imitation.1 

Here  again  is  the  text,  from  the  same  manual,  of  a  collect  for  St. 

1.  Thomas  a  Kempis  is  in  great  favour  among  the  orthodox  disciples  of  Comte, 
who  have  strongly  recommended  the  use  of  the  Imitation  as  a  manual  of  piety  and 
holiness  of  universal  acceptance,  on  condition,  of  course,  that  Humanity  be  substi- 
tuted for  God,  the  social  type  for  the  personal  type  in  Jesus,  our  spiritual  progress 
for  the  rewards  of  a  future  life,  our  social  instincts  for  grace,  and  our  selfish  instincts 
for  nature.  "So  used,"  says  Dr.  Congreve,  in  his  little  manual,  The  Religion  of 
Humanity,  "its  lessons  of  devotion  and  humility,  of  intimate  communion  with  the 
type  we  adore,  of  unceasing  moral  culture,  of  self-denying  service,  of  the  service  not 
of  ourselves,  but  of  others,  are  not  the  less  available  because  they  are  clothed  in 
the  language  of  an  older  faith  and  sanctioned  by  the  experience  of  many  generations 
of  faithful  and  devout  men." 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  135 

Francis  of  Assisi,  whose  festival  or  day  of  commemoration  occurs  on 
the  twentieth  of  Charlemagne  in  the  Comtist  calendar  (7th  of  July) : — 
"  In  another  time  and  with  another  belief,  we,  who  on  this  day 
reverently  honour  the  memory  of  this  eminent  saint  of  the  older  dis- 
pensation, St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  pray  that  his  example  may  not  be 
lost  upon  us,  but  that  his  seraphic  love  for  the  object  of  his  devotion 
may  teach  us  a  like  love  for  the  suffering  and  wounded  Humanity 
whom  we  preach  and  serve,  that  in  the  force  of  that  love  we  may 
catch  some  portion  of  this  saint's  great  humility,  of  the  richness  of  his 
spirit  of  renunciation,  of  his  unbounded  simple  affection  for  all  his 
fellow  men,  for  all  living  beings,  for  all  outward  objects ;  lastly  of  his 
patient  and  loving  resignation — So  by  our  lives  glorifying  our  service 
as  he  glorified  his ;  so  spreading,  as  he  spread  his  faith ;  the  nobler 
and  more  enduring  faith  into  which  that  of  Medaeeval  Europe  has  in 
our  times  been  transfigured." 

I  shall  close  these  extracts  by  the  reproduction  of  the  prayer  which 
Dr.  Congreve  has  drawn  up  for  the  sacrament  of  the  presentation 
of  children  : — 

"  Grand  Power  whom  we  adore  as  the  source  of  all  good  to  men, 
Humanity;  we  thy  servants,  met  for  the  consecration  of  a  new  life  to  thy 
service,  humbly  and  earnestly  pray  that  the  child  by  this  sacrament  pre- 
sented and  consecrated  may  be  lovingly,  faithfully,  and  wisely  trained; 
that  under  all  wholesome  influences  of  affection,  and  submission, 
and  reverence  he  may  grow  up  to  be  in  his  turn  rich  in  such  influences 
for  others,  taking  his  part  in  thy  continuous  work.  We  pray,  more- 
over for  ourselves,  that  whatever  our  share  in  this  celebration,  we  may 
all  alike  use  it  rightly  to  re-kindle  our  devotion,  and  as  an  occasion 
for  renewing  our  dedication  of  ourselves  to  thee  ;  that  it  may  leave  us 
at  once  humbler  and  better — humbler  from  the  sense  of  our  great 
shortcomings,  better  by  the  resolve  to  use  more  carefully  the  oppor- 
tunity still  left  us  for  improvement,  self-sacrifice  for  others,  zeal  and 
activity  in  thy  cause — so  glorifying  thee  for  thy  past  and  preparing  for 
thy  more  glorious  future. — Amen." 

The  early  stages  of  the  Positivist  church  were  attended  with  con- 
siderable difficulty.  Some  dozen  years  ago  an  able  writer,  Mr.  Mark 
Pattison,  being  questioned  as  to  what  he  had  seen  on  a  certain  occa- 
sion at  the  Comtist  chapel,  replied  that  he  had  found  there  three 


136  COMTISM   AND   SECULARISM. 

persons,  but  no  God.  Positivism,  it  is  true,  has  always  forbidden  all 
inconsiderate  proselytism,  which  explains  both  the  smallness  of  its 
numbers  and  the  distinguished  character  of  its  adherents.  To  speak 
merely  of  London,  we  may  mention  as  among  its  principal  champions 
to-day,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  essayists  in  England,  Mr.  Frederic 
Harrison,  whose  name  is  familiar  to  the  readers  of  the  great  English 
reviews ;  Professor  Beesley,  of  University  Hall ;  Mr.  James  Cotter 
Morrison,  one  of  the  staff  of  the  Forttiightly  Review,  and  Mr.  Henry 
Crompton,  a  barrister  of  ability  and  an  energetic  champion  of  the 
interests  of  working  men, — not  to  speak  of  others,  whose  names  may 
be  found  on  the  list  of  weekly  lectures  arranged  for  by  the  Positivists 
in  their  chapels.  In  addition  to  the  London  centres  of  the  Positivist 
faith,  others  have  been  established  during  recent  years  at  Dublin, 
Liverpool,  Birmingham,  Manchester,  and  Newcastle. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  a  secession  took  place  in  the  Church  of 
Humanity  in  1878,  which  threatened  for  a  moment  the  unity  of 
Comtism,  but  which  was  at  last  reduced,  at  least  as  regards  England, 
to  a  simple  personal  difference.  Dr.  Congreve  having  at  this  time, 
together  with  several  of  his  French  co-religionists,  rejected  the 
authority  of  M.  Lafitte,  whom  he  charged  with  making  too  much  of 
teaching  and  too  little  of  preaching,1  the  most  eminent  English 
Positivists  refused  to  follow  their  compatriot  in  this  matter;  and  hence 
they  formed  at  Newton  Hall,  an  old  Scottish  Chapel  in  Fetter  Lane, 
a  new  branch  of  the  Church  of  Humanity,  which  M.  Lafitte  came 
over  to  solemnly  consecrate  in  1881.  Weekly  meetings  are  held  there, 
the  festivals  of  Humanity  being  observed  and  the  sacraments  ad- 
ministered exactly  as  at  Chapel  Street.  The  only  difference  consists 
in  a  greater  simplicity  of  ritual.  But  it  is  probable  that  this  will  be- 
come more  elaborate  with  the  lapse  of  time.  We  shall  perhaps  have 
to  wait  for — said  Mr.  Harrison  on  the  1st  of  January,  1880,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  fete  of  Humanity — "  the  due  commemoration  of  this 
day ;  the  full  embodiment  of  all  those  thoughts,  feelings,  resolves  that 
come  to  us  at  the  opening  of  one  year  more,  may  not  be  yet.  Our 
meagre  expressions  are  such  as  belong  to  the  difficulties  of  a  small 
beginning.     We  believe,  as  much  as  the  adherents  of  any  faith,  that 

1.  Comte  himself  distinguished  between  the  functions  of  the  apostle  and  those 
of  the  priest.  The  latter  should  address  himself  exclusively  to  minds  imbued  with 
Positive  teaching,  the  former  ought  to  make  a  direct  appeal  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
masses. 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  137 

a  truly  religious  sense  of  duty  in  men  and  women  gathered  together 
in  common  convictions  and  with  joint  purpose,  will  ere  long  issue  in 
enthusiastic  appeals  to  the  noblest  of  all  the  human  feelings,  with  all 
the  resources  of  art  and  poetry.1 

The  Positivists  of  Newton  Hall  have  organised  an  entire  system  of 
instruction,  which  they  have  gratuitously  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
public,  and  which  has  been  wholly  arranged  according  to  the  scheme 
of  education  devised  by  Comte.  The  meetings  of  the  "  London 
Positivist  Society"  are  held  in  the  same  hall.  This  society  is  under 
the  presidency  of  Mr.  Harrison,  and  it  aims  at  influencing  public 
opinion,  with  a  view  to  promote  the  moral  and  social  doctrines  en- 
joined by  Positivism.  It  is  this  organization  which  has  given  utterance 
during  recent  years  to  the  most  vehement  protestations  against  the 
war  in  Afghanistan,  the  annexation  of  the  Transvaal,  the  policy  of 
coercion  in  Ireland  and  the  Egyptian  expedition. 

At  a  period  in  which  the  great  majority  of  men  are  in  doubt  about 
everything  and  often  of  themselves  too,  the  orthodox  Positivists 
possess  a  faith  whose  comprehensiveness  and  ardour,  are  a  source  of 
moral  restfulness  and  intellectual  pleasure.  In  their  opinion  Auguste 
Comte  truly  revealed  to  the  world  the  last  word  of  method,  if  not  of 
truth,  and  there  is  not  perhaps  a  single  Comtist  who  has  ever  allowed 
himself  to  criticise  the  least  important  assertion  of  his  master,  except 
to  interpret  or  complete  its  significance.  In  all  this,  there  is  doubtless 
evidence  of  a  re-action  against  the  intellectual  anarchy  through  which 
modern  society  is  struggling ;  but  this  rare  instance  of  mental  dis- 
cipline is  none  the  less  strange  when  we  bear  in  mind  the  superiority 
of  the  men  by  whom  it  has  been  freely  adopted. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Comtists  profess  the  most  unswerving 
confidence  in  the  full  and  final  triumph  of  their  faith;  the  only 
question  of  which  they  are  in  doubt  is  whether  this  triumph  will  take 
place  early  enough  to  save  European  civilization  from  the  destruction 
which,  as  they  think,  the  Religion  of  Humanity  can  alone  prevent. 
"There  is  a  great  and  terrible  uncertainty  hanging  over  the  immediate 
destinies  of  the  West,"  said  Professor  Beesley,  at  the  festival  of 
Humanity,  on  the  ist  of  January,  1881.  Will  the  diffusion  of 
Positivist  ideas  among  a  sufficient  number  of  good  people  be  accom- 

I.  Frederic  Harrison,  The  Present  and  the  Future;  a  Positivist  Address. 
London,   1880. 


138  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

plished  in  time  to  arrest  the  forces  which  are  hurrying  Europe  towards 
anarchy,  or  will  the  disorganization  be  upon  us  before  the  only  re- 
organizing doctrine  has  been  able  to  make  itself  sufficiently  known, 
or  has  leavened  the  mass  outside  of  a  few  scattered  groups  ? "  It  is 
thus  that  the  early  Christians  were  constrained  to  speak  when  they  saw 
the  approaching  ruin  of  the  Roman  world,  which  is  symbolized  by  the 
visions  of  the  Apocalypse. 

Positivists  of  the  Stuart  Mill  type  are  at  present  rare  in  England, 
and  the  school  of  Littre  is  perhaps  still  less  represented  there.  All 
those  who  have  not  accepted  Comte's  system  in  its  entirety  appear  to 
have  been  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  evolution.  Hence  orthodox 
Positivists  are  not  sparing  in  their  condemnation  of  the  writings  of 
Herbert  Spencer,  whom  they  charge,  not  only  with  mistaking  the  value 
of  the  scientific  classification  established  by  Comte,  but  also  with 
exceeding  the  limits  of  observation  by  affirming  the  reality  of  the 
Unknowable,  as  well  as  with  promoting  moral  anarchy  by  disregard- 
ing the  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  sentiment  in  order  to  ensure  the 
predominance  of  the  Altruistic  over  the  selfish  impulses  in  the  indi- 
vidual. It  is  notorious,  indeed,  that  Spencer  in  his  system  of  ethics, 
claims  that  the  happiness  of  the  community  flows  out  of  the  happiness 
of  the  individual,  and  that  he  sees  in  the  latter  the  direct  or  indirect 
source  of  all  our  actions ;  whence  the  conclusion  that  duty  is  an  illu- 
sion and  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  a  mere  phantom  of  the  imagination. 
The  Positivists,  on  the  other  hand,  regard  the  happiness  of  others  as 
the  first  consideration,  while  the  happiness  of  the  individual  is,  in 
their  opinion,  only  a  consequence  or  corollary  of  this.  No  one  has, 
perhaps,  seen  more  clearly  than  Mr.  Harrison  has  done  the  weakness 
of  the  evolutionary  philosophy,  regarded  in  its  ethical  bearings.  "  A 
Power,"  says  he,1  "  which  is  to  comfort  us,  control  us,  unite  us,  and  a 
Power  that  is  to  have  any  religious  effect  on  us,  must  comfort,  control, 

I.  Pantheism  and  Cosmic  Emotion,  in  the  XIX.  Century,  of  August,  1881. — 
Among  the  Positivists  of  the  Continent  and  specially  those  of  the  school  of  Littre, 
Mr.  Spencer's  Philosophy  is  treated  still  more  severely.  Ten  years  after  the  publi- 
cation of  the  article  in  which  M.  Laugel  said  of  Spencer  in  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  that  he  was  condemning  himself  to  poverty  and  obscurity  from  his 
devotion  to  speculations  of  an  unpopular  kind,  the  Revue  Positive,  of  Paris,  charged 
him  "  with  having  turned  his  back  on  the  immortal  Stuart  Mill  to  sacrifice  to  the 
golden  calf,  the  source  of  all  popularity,  in  company  with  Darwin,  Lubbock, 
Tyndall  and  Huxley."  (Le  Transformisme  devant  le  Positivisme,  in  the  Revue 
Positive  for  January  and  February,  1875). 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  139 

unite, — must  be  a  Power  that  we  conceive  as  akin  to  our  human 
souls ;  a  moral  power,  not  a  physical  Power ;  a  sympathetic,  active, 
living  Power,  not  a  group  of  phenomena  or  a  law  of  matter.  You 
might  as  well  tell  a  mother  to  bring  up  her  child  on  the  binomial 
theorem."1 

I.  Some  reference  to  the  controversy  on  this  subject,  which  was  carried  on  in  the 
pages  of  the  XIX.  Century  during  1884,  between  Mr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Harrison, 
will  not  be  deemed  out  of  place  here.  It  originated  in  an  Article  which  the  former 
published  in  the  January  number  of  the  Review,  with  the  title, — "  Religion  :  A 
Retrospect  and  a  Prospect."  He  begins  this  article  by  stating  that,  "  Unlike  the 
ordinary  consciousness,  the  religious  consciousness  is  concerned  with  that  which  lies 
beyond  the  sphere  of  sense. "  He  then  shows,  or  attempts  to  show,  that  the  "  ghost- 
theory,"  with  its  "other  self,  supposed  to  wander  in  dreams,"  illustrates  and  explains 
the  origin  of  this  consciousness.  And  he  adds, — "Thus,  recognising  the  fact  that 
in  the  primitive  human  mind  there  exists  neither  religious  idea  nor  religious  senti- 
ment, we  find  that  in  the  course  of  social  evolution  and  the  evolution  of  intelligence 
accompanying  it,  there  are  generated  both  the  ideas  and  sentiments  which  we  dis- 
tinguish as  religious ;  and  that  through  a  process  of  causation,  clearly  traceable, 
they  traverse  those  stages  which  have  brought  them,  among  civilized  races,  to  their 
present  form."  But,  continues  Mr.  Spencer,  it  may  be  objected  "  The  ghost-theory 
of  the  savage  is  baseless.  The  material  double  of  a  dead  man,  in  which  he  believes, 
never  had  any  existence.  And  if  by  a  gradual  de-materialisation  of  this  double  was 
produced  the  conception  of  the  supernatural  agent  in  general — if  the  conception  of 
a  Deity,  formed  by  the  dropping  of  some  human  attributes  and  transfiguration  of 
others,  resulted  from  continuance  of  this  process,  is  not  the  developed  and  purified 
conception,  reached  by  pushing  the  process  to  its  limit,  a  fiction  also  ?  Surely  if 
the  primitive  belief  was  absolutely  false,  all  derived  beliefs  must  be  absolutely  false. 
This  objection  looks  fatal,  and  it  would  be  fatal  were  its  premiss  valid.  Unexpected 
as  it  will  be  to  most  readers,  the  answer  here  to  be  made  is  that  at  the  outset  a  germ 
of  truth  was  contained  in  the  primitive  conception — the  truth,  namely,  that  the 
power  which  manifests  itself  in  consciousness  is  but  a  differently-conditioned  form 
of  the  power  which  manifests  itself  beyond  consciousness."  .  .  .  See  now  the 
implications.  That  internal  energy  which  in  the  experiences  of  the  primitive  man 
was  always  the  immediate  antecedent  of  changes  wrought  by  him — that  energy 
which,  when  interpreting  external  changes,  he  thought  of  along  with  those  attributes 
of  a  human  personality  connected  with  it  in  himself,  is  the  same  energy  which,  freed 
from  anthropomorphic  accompaniments,  is  now  figured  as  the  cause  of  all  external 
phenomena.  The  last  stage  reached  is  recognition  of  the  truth  that  force  as  it 
exists  beyond  consciousness  cannot  be  like  what  we  know  as  force  within  conscious- 
ness ;  and  that  yet,  as  either  is  capable  of  generating  the  other,  they  must  be 
different  modes  of  the  same.  Consequently,  the  final  outcome  of  that  speculation 
commenced  by  the  primitive  man,  is  that  the  Power  manifested  throughout  the 
Universe  distinguished  as  material,  is  the  same  power  which  in  ourselves  wells  up 
under  the  form  of  consciousness," 

It  will  seem  to  most  readers  that  these  thoughts  are  not  only  sublime  in  their 
suggestiveness,  but  that  they  disclose  the  most  solid  of  all  foundations  for  the 
religious  sentiment — nature  itself.  Anyhow,  Mr.  Spencer  goes  on  to  say  as  to  the 
result  of  science  in  its  bearing  on  religion, — "Those  who  think  that  science  is  dis- 
sipating religious  beliefs  and  sentiments  seem  unaware  that  whatever  of  mystery  is 


140  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

I  must  not  omit  to  mention  an  attempt  which  has  been  made  to 
unite  the  Unknowable  of  Herbert  Spencer  with  the  Grand-Etre  of 
Comte,  in  a  common  religious  conception.  For  although  it  is 
Mr.  William  Frey,  an  American  Positivist,  to  whom  this  attempt  is 
due,  I  consider  it  desirable  to  give  an  exposition  of  his  views  in  this 
chapter,  because  no  better  conclusion  could  be  found  for  what  I  have 
advanced  respecting  the  general  character  of  Positivism  and  its  special 
development  as  a  system  of  faith  and  worship. 

In  a  paper  published  in  the  Index,  of  the  3rd  of  August,  1882, 
Mr.  Frey  showed,  with  great  power  of  reasoning  and  a  truly  compre- 

taken  from  the  old  interpretation  is  added  to  the  new.  .  .  .  Under  one  of  its 
aspects  scientific  progress  is  a  gradual  transfiguration  of  Nature.  Where  ordinary 
perception  saw  perfect  simplicity  it  reveals  great  complexity ;  where  there  seemed 
absolute  inertness  it  discloses  intense  activity ;  and  in  what  appears  mere  vacancy 
it  finds  a  marvellous  play  of  forces.  .  .  .  When  the  explorer  of  Nature  sees 
that,  quiescent  as  they  appear,  surrounding  solid  bodies  are  sensitive  to  forces  which 
are  infinitesimal  in  their  amounts — when  the  spectroscope  proves  to  him  that 
molecules  on  the  earth  pulsate  in  harmony  with  molecules  in  the  stars — when  there 
is  forced  on  him  the  inference  that  every  point  in  space  thrills  with  an  infinity  of 
vibrations  passing  through  it  in  all  directions ;  the  conception  to  which  he  tends  is 
much  less  that  of  a  Universe  of  dead  matter  than  that  of  a  Universe  everwhere 
alive — alive  if  not  in  the  restricted  sense  still  in  a  general  sense.  This  transfigura- 
tion, which  the  inquiries  of  physicists  continually  increase,  is  aided  by  that  other 
transfiguration  resulting  from  metaphysical  inquiries.  Subjective  analysis  compels 
us  to  admit  that  our  scientific  interpretations  of  the  phenomena  which  objects  pre- 
sent are  expressed  in  terms  of  our  own  variously-combined  sensations  and  ideas — 
are  expressed,  that  is,  in  elements  belonging  to  consciousness,  which  are  but  symbols 
of  the  something  beyond  consciousness.  Though  analysis  afterwards  reinstates  our 
primitive  beliefs,  to  the  extent  of  showing  that  behind  every  group  of  phenomenal 
manifestations  there  is  always  a  nexus,  which  is  the  reality  that  remains  fixed  amid 
appearances  which  are  variable,  yet  we  are  shown  that  this  nexus  of  reality  is  for 
ever  inaccessible  to  consciousness.  And  when  once  more  we  remember  that  the 
activities  constituting  consciousness,  being  rigorously  bounded,  cannot  bring  in 
among  themselves  the  activities  beyond  the  bounds,  which  therefore  seem  uncon- 
scious, though  production  of  either  by  the  other  seems  to  imply  that  they  are  of  the 
same  essential  nature  ;  this  necessity  we  are  under  to  think  of  the  external  energy  in 
terms  of  the  internal  energy  gives  rather  a  spiritualistic  than  a  materialistic  aspect 
to  the  Universe  :  further  thought,  however,  obliging  us  to  recognise  the  truth  that 
a  conception  given  in  phenomenal  manifestations  of  this  ultimate  energy  can  in  no 
wise  show  us  what  it  is.  .  .  .  Amid  the  mysteries  which  become  the  more 
mysterious  the  more  they  are  thought  about,  there  will  remain  the  one  absolute  cer- 
tainty that  he  (the  thinker  of  the  future)  is  ever  in  presence  of  an  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed." 

Now  there  is  much  in  the  foregoing  passages,  to  say  nothing  of  other  parts  of  the 
Article,  which  could  not  fail  to  rouse  the  hostility  of  an  orthodox  Positivist,  and 
no  one  acquainted  with  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison's  brilliant  controversial  talents,  can 
have  been  surprised  when  two  months  later  he  joined  issue  "with  the  acknowledged 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  141 

hensive  range  of  thought,  that  the  principal  source  of  our  religious 
sentiments  is  to  be  traced  to  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  universe. 
But  man  has  always  sought  to  represent,  under  concrete  and  tangible 
human  forms,  the  mysterious  Power  upon  which  he  feels  dependent. 
And  although  the  idea  of  the  Infinite,  as  Mr.  Spencer  shows,  has  been 
gradually  freed  from  all  its  anthropomorphic  attributes  and  transformed 
into  the  indeterminate  conception  of  the  Unknowable,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  importance  of  the  human  element  in  the  object  of 
worship  has  not  only  suffered  no  diminution,  but  has  even  been  in- 
creased in  proportion  as  the  conception  of  the  Divinity  has  become 

head  of  the  Evolution  philosophy,"  to  use  his  own  words.  And  in  order  to  make 
his  attack  all  the  more  formidable,  as  it  would  seem,  he  began  by  praising  his  oppo- 
nent who  had  uttered  "  the  last  word  of  the  Agnostic  philosophy  in  its  long  contro- 
versy with  theology,"  and  in  so  conclusive  a  manner  that  it  was  "hard  to  conceive" 
how  theology  could  "rally  for  another  bout."  But  the  essay,  he  said,  which  was 
"packed  with  thought  to  a  degree  unusual  even  with  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,"  dealt 
rather  with  the  "  Ghost  of  Religion"  than  with  "Religion"  itself.  It  was  divisible, 
he  added,  into  three  parts,  the  third  of  which  "deals  with  the  evolution  of  religion 
in  the  future,  and  formulates,  more  precisely  than  has  ever  yet  been  effected,  the 
positive  creed  of  Agnostic  philosophy." 

"  Has,  then,  the  Agnostic  a  positive  creed,  he  asks?  It  would  seem  so;  for  Mr. 
Spencer  brings  us  at  last  '  to  the  one  absolute  certainty,  the  presence  of  an  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed.'  But  let  no  one  suppose  that 
this  is  merely  a  new  name  for  the  Great  First  Cause  of  so  many  theologies  and 
metaphysics.  In  spite  of  the  capital  letters,  and  the  use  of  theological  terms  as 
old  as  Isaiah  or  Athanasius,  Mr.  Spencer's  Energy  has  no  analogy  with  God.  It 
is  Eternal,  Infinite  and  Incomprehensible  ;  but  still  it  is  not  He,  but  It.  It  remains 
always  Energy,  Force,  nothing  anthropomorphic  ;  such  as  electricity,  or  anything 
else  that  we  might  conceive  as  the  ultimate  basis  of  all  the  physical  forces.  None 
of  the  positive  attributes  which  have  ever  been  predicated  of  God,  can  be  used  of 

this  Energy It  shares  some  of  the  negative  attributes  of  God  and 

First  Cause,  but  no  positive  one.  It  is,  in  fact,  only  the  Unknowable  a  little  more 
defined  ;  though  I  do  not  remember  that  Mr.  Spencer,  or  any  Evolution  philosopher, 
has  ever  formulated  the  Unknowable  in  terms  with  so  deep  a  theological  ring  as  we 
hear  in  the  phrase  '  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed.' " 

Clearly  the  sting  of  Mr.  Spencer's  article  lay  in  these  words — in  the  differentia- 
tion of  the  Ultimate  "Energy"  from  the  "all  things"  proceeding  from  it,  which 
they  imply.  But  Mr.  Harrison  continues:  "Agnosticism,  perfectly  legitimate  as 
the  true  answer  of  science  to  an  effete  question,  has  shown  us  that  religion  is  not  to 
be  found  anywhere  within  the  realm  of  Cause.  Having  brought  us  to  the  answer, 
1  no  cause  that  we  know  of,'  it  is  laughable  to  call  that  negation  religion.  Mr. 
Mark  Pattison,  one  of  the  acutest  minds  of  modern  Oxford,  rather  oddly  says  that 
the  idea  of  Deity  has  been  '  defecated  to  a  pure  transparency.'  The  evolution 
philosophy  goes  a  step  further  and  defecates  the  idea  of  Cause  to  a  pure  transpar- 
ency. Theology  and  ontology  alike  end  in  the  everlasting  No,  with  which  science 
confronts  all  their  assertions.  But  how  whimsical  is  it  to  tell  us  that  religion,  which 
cannot  find  any  resting  place  in  theology  or  ontology,  is  to  find  its  true  home  in  the 


142  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

more  vague;  men  have  simply  endowed  their  fellows  with  the  attributes 
stripped  from  the  Unknowable,  as  the  formation  and  development 
of  the  most  recent  great  religions  attest. 

Mr.  Spencer  admits  the  necessity  of  representing  the  Infinite  by 
some  concrete  symbolism ;  all  that  he  asks  is  that  the  symbols  made 
use  of  shall  be  regarded  as  possessed  of  no  resemblance  whatever  to 
the  Reality  for  which  they  stand.  "But,"  asks  Mr.  Frey,  "what 
symbol  of  this  nature  is  susceptible  of  awakening  in  us  the  sympathies 
which  play  so  preponderating  a  part  in  the  complex  character  of  the 
religious  sentiment?  This  inscrutable  Power,  stern,  inflexible  in  its 
mysterious  way,  requiring  a  complete  submission  to  its  will,  punishing 

Everlasting  No.  That  which  is  defecated  to  a  pure  transparency  can  never  supply 
a  religion  to  any  human  being  but  a  philosopher  constructing  a  system.  It  is  quite 
conceivable  that  religion  is  to  end  with  theology,  and  both  might  in  the  course  of 
evolution  become  an  anachronism.  But  if  religion  there  is  still  to  be,  it  cannot  be 
found  in  this  No-man's-land  and  Know-nothing  creed.  Better  bury  religion  at  once 
than  let  its  ghost  walk  uneasy  in  our  dreams Mr.  Spencer  has  un- 
wittingly conceded  to  the  divines  that  which  they  assume  so  confidently — that 
theology  is  the  same  thing  as  religion,  and  that  there  was  no  religion  at  all  until 
there  was  a  belief  in  superhuman  spirits  within  and  behind  nature.  This  is 
obviously  an  oversight.  We  have  to  go  very  much  further  back  for  the  genesis  of 
religion.  There  were  countless  centuries  of  Time,  and  there  were  and  there  are 
countless  millions  of  men  for  whom  no  doctrine  of  superhuman  spirits  ever  took 
coherent  form.  In  all  these  ages  and  races,  probably  by  far  the  most  numerous  that 
our  planet  has  witnessed,  there  was  religion  in  all  kinds  of  definite  form.  Comte 
calls  it  Fetichism — terms  are  not  important :  roughly  we  may  call  it  Nature-worship. 
The  religion  in  all  these  types  was  the  belief  and  worship  not  of  spirits  of  any  kind, 
not  of  any  immaterial,  imagined  being  inside  things,  but  of  the  actual  visible 
things  themselves — trees,  stones,  rivers,  mountains,  earth,  fire,  stars,  sun  and  sky. " 

Then  again  as  to  the  "Unknowable,"  Mr.  Harrison  says:  "As  the  universal 
substratum  it  has  some  analogy  with  other  superhuman  objects  of  worship.  But 
Force,  Gravitation,  Atom,  Undulation,  Vibration  and  other  abstract  notions  have 
much  the  same  kind  of  analogy,  but  nobody  ever  dreamed  of  a  religion  of  gravita- 
tion or  the  worship  of  molecules It  would  be  hardly  sane  to  make  a 

religion  of  the  Equator  or  the  Binomial  theorem But  to  make  a  re- 
ligion out  of  the  Unknowable  is  far  more  extravagant  than  to  make  it  out  of  the 

Equator I  suppose  Dean   Mansel's  Bampton  Lectures  touched  the 

low-water  mark  of  vitality  as  predecated  of  the  Divine  Being.  Of  all  modern 
theologians  the  Dean  came  the  nearest  to  the  Evolution  negation.  But  there  is  a 
gulf  which  separates  even  his  all-negative  Deity  from  Mr.  Spencer's  impersonal, 

unconscious,  unthinking  and  unthinkable  Energy One  would  like  to 

know  how  much  of  the  Evolutionist's  day  is  consecrated  to  seeking  the  Unknow- 
able in  a  devout  way,  and  what  the  religious  exercises  might  be.  How  does  the 
man  of  science  approach  the  All-Nothingness?  ....  Imagine  a  religion 
which  excludes  the  idea  of  worship,  because  its  sole  dogma  is  the  infinity  of 
Nothingness.  Although  the  Unknowable  is  logically  said  to  be  something,  yet  the 
something  of  which  we  neither  know  nor  conceive  anything  is  practically  nothing. 


COMTISM   AND   SECULARISM.  143 

every  transgression  of  its  laws,  may  be  compared  with  an  autocrat  who 
shows  no  partiality,  puts  everybody  on  the  same  footing,  and  inflicts 
the  same  punishment  on  his  best  subject  as  on  the  meanest.  Such  a 
Power  may  enforce  humility,  terror,  and  awe — the  very  same  feelings 
which  were  so  prominent  among  primitive  men — but  never  excite  the 
sympathetic  feeling.  Children  may  love  the  parent  only  when  con- 
scious of  being  loved  and  protected  by  him  during  their  helplessness 
and  in  time  of  trouble.  The  cold,  stony-hearted,  immovable  Power 
of  Agnostics  cannot  excite  in  man  the  feelings  of  love,  self-sacrifice, 
and  devotion."  It  is  not  sufficient,  adds  Mr.  Frey,  to  possess  an 
acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  nature ;  we  need  also  a  stimulus,  which 
shall  impel  us  to  act  in  conformity  with  their  requirements  and  serve 
as  a  guide  just  where  science  ceases  to  do  this.  The  most  selfish 
man,  for  instance,  may  unhesitatingly  accept  all  the  deductions  of 
Herbert  Spencer  without  becoming  the  better  for  it.     Even  more,  he 

.  .  .  .  There  is  one  symbol  of  the  infinite  Unknowable,  and  it  is  perhaps  the 
most  definite  and  ultimate  word  that  can  be  said  about  it.  The  precise  and  yet  in- 
exhaustible language  of  mathematics  enables  us  to  express,  in  a  common  algebraic 
formula,  the  exact  combination  of  the  Unknown  raised  to  its  highest  power  of 
infinity.  That  formula  is  {xn),  and  here  we  have  the  beginning  and  perhaps 
the  end  of  a  symbolism  of  the  religion  of  the  infinite  Unknowable.  Schools, 
academies,  temples  of  the  Unknowable,  there  cannot  be.  But  where  two  or  three 
are  gathered  together  to  worship  the  Unknowable,  there  the  algebraic  formula  may 
suffice  to  give  form  to  their  emotions  :  they  may  be  heard  to  profess  their  unweary- 
ing belief  in  (xn),  even  if  no  weak  brother  with  ritualistic  tendencies  be  heard 
to  cry,  '  O  (•*""),  love  us,  help  us,  make  us  one  with  thee ! '  " 

Now  it  need  hardly  be  said,  by  way  of  concluding  this  long  note,  that  Mr. 
Harrison  in  speaking  of  the  "  Unknowable  "  as  the  "All-Nothingness,"  completely 
misunderstands  or  perverts  his  opponent's  teaching,  and  this  the  latter  had  no 
difficulty  in  showing,  while  in  his  first  reply  he  dealt,  moreover,  a  rude  thrust  at  the 
so-called  "  Religion  of  Humanity,"  and  completely  negatived  the  assertion  that 
the  earliest  form  of  worship  was  directed  to  natural  objects  per  se  "without  trace 
of  ghost,  spirit  or  god."  Suffice  it  to  add  that  the  controversy  consisted  of  three 
articles  from  Mr.  Spencer  and  two  from  Mr.  Harrison,  while  the  Rev.  Canon 
Curteis  and  Sir  James  Stephen  also  took  part  in  it  from  their  respective  stand- 
points. The  author  of  this  work  too  published  an  excellent  article  on  the  contro- 
versy in  the  Revue  de  PHistoire  des  Religions,  in  which  he  shows  that  "the 
conditions  indispensible  to  becoming  the  object  of  a  religion  are  found  in  the 
Unknowable,  as  well  as  in  the  Eternal,  the  Absolute,  the  Self-Existent,  the  Moat 
High,  the  Only  Pure  or  whatever  other  qualifications  men  may  have  made  the 
equivalent  of  the  divine,"  and  that  "  before  becoming  the  scientific  faith  of  Spencer, 
Huxley,  and  even  Haekel,  this  religious  conception  has  sufficed  for  men  of  the 
highest  order  of  mind  and  of  the  most  religious  susceptibilities,  such  as  Giordano, 
Bruno,  Spinoza,  Kant,  Goethe,  Shelley,  Wordsworth,  Carlyle,  Emerson,  and  even 
M.  Renan." — Translator. 


144  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

will  possibly  find  in  the  ultimate  axioms  of  science,  relative  to  the 
struggle  for  life  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  an  excuse  for  acts  most 
at  variance  with  the  claims  of  justice  and  humanity. 

Happily,  whatever  incompleteness  or  even  pernicious  tendency  there 
may  be  in  this  conception,  it  is  capable  of  being  supplemented  or  cor- 
rected by  the  great  discovery  of  Comte,  that,  between  man  and  the 
universe  there  exists  humanity.  "  We  see  in  humanity  a  source  of  all  our 
blessings,  because  from  her  we  obtain  our  knowledge  and  inspirations ; 
only  by  and  with  her  can  we  live  and  perfect  ourselves.  And  as  our 
material  bodies  which  are  fed  upon  the  earth,  do  not  perish,  but  return 
to  the  earth  and  live  for  ever  with  it,  so  our  achievements,  activities, 
and  influences  which  are  obtained  from  humanity  do  not  perish,  but 
return  back  to  humanity,  and  live  for  ever  with  her,  having  their  share 
in  her  future  development.  Viewed  in  such  a  light,  humanity  ceases 
to  be  our  master  only ;  it  becomes  our  protector  and  comforter  also. 
And  the  sense  of  gratitude,  combined  with  the  sense  of  duty,  compels 
us  to  pledge  our  life  to  its  improvement  and  perfection." 

The  conception  of  humanity  as  a  living  organism,  continues  Mr. 
Frey,  gives  us  a  key  for  the  most  difficult  moral  problems.  It  explains 
why  man  cannot  attain  to  true  happiness  if  he  does  not  live  for  others. 
It  lays  the  foundations  of  morality,  moreover,  neither  in  the  freedom 
of  the  Will,  nor  in  a  fatalistic  conception,  but  in  the  instinct  of  preser- 
vation, which  belongs  to  Humanity  as  well  as  to  every  individual 
organism.  From  a  religious  point  of  view  it  cannot  fail  to  call  forth, 
in  the  highest  degree,  all  the  good  effects  which  were  brought  about 
by  the  human  element  in  the  old  religions. — "  If  more  than  a  third  of 
the  human  race  prostrates  itself,  if  millions  of  Christians  worship  a 
good  man  hanged  as  a  criminal,  if  a  still  greater  number  of  Mussul- 
mans get  their  inspiration  from  Mohammed,  well  may  we  bow  in 
admiration  and  love  before  Humanity  as  a  galaxy  of  all  great  men 
and  all  noble  thought  and  actions  which  ever  stirred  the  human  soul." 

Does  it  follow  that  in  imitation  of  certain  Positivists  who  are  dazzled 
by  the  grandeur  of  this  discovery,  we  should  try  to  put  Humanity  in 
the  place  of  God  ?  In  relation  to  this  question,  Herbert  Spencer  has 
justly  said — "  No  such  thing  as  humanity  can  ever  do  more  than 
temporarily  shut  out  the  thought  of  a  Power  of  which  Humanity  is 
but  a  small  and  fugitive  product— a  Power  which  was  in  course  of 
ever-changing  manifestations  long  before  humanity,  and  will  continue 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  145 

through  other  manifestations  when  humanity  has  ceased  to  be."  (Study 
of  Sociology,  p.  312.)  Mr.  Frey  yields  therefore  to  the  necessity  of 
admitting  both  the  existence  of  the  Unknowable  and  our  dependence 
upon  that  mysterious  Power,  as  well  as  our  inability  to  fathom  its 
inscrutable  nature. — "  We  differ  from  the  pure  Agnostics  of  Herbert 
Spencer's  stamp,  only  when  we  come  to  the  solution  of  a  burning 
question  which  always  was  pre-eminent  in  every  religion  :  Who  will 
reveal  to  us  the  laws  of  nature,  who  will  be  our  Saviour  ?" — Science, 
answer  the  Agnostics,  who  thus  restrict  religion  to  its  element  of 
mystery. — No,  says  Mr.  Frey,  it  must  be  a  concrete,  living,  superior 
being  which  represents  the  human  element  of  religion  in  the  purest 
and  loftiest  manner :  "The  blank  left  in  our  souls  by  the  omission  of 
a  personal  God  is  filled  now  by  the  image  of  Humanity  as  our  pro- 
tecting and  guiding  father.  We  worship  humanity  as  the  mediator 
between  man  and  the  Infinite  for  all  ages  to  come,  and,  in  serving 
humanity,  we  have  all  that  is  needed  to  unite  persons  of  the  most 
diversified  taste,  temperaments,  and  dispositions  into  one  religious 
brotherhood." 

It  is  clear  the  Agnostic  can  feel  no  scruple  in  accepting  a  form  of 
faith  thus  understood,  since  humanity  is  not  a  product  of  the  imagi- 
nation, but  a  fact  verifiable  by  science.  On  the  other  hand,  what 
objection  could  be  urged  against  this  conception,  by  Positivists,  who 
address  their  worship  to  humanity,  without  taking  into  account  the 
element  of  mystery  in  religion  ?  "  The  intense  feeling  of  gratitude 
and  adoration  which  they  feel  toward  humanity  will  become  only 
deeper  and  stronger  if  humanity  be  regarded  as  mediator  between, 
man  and  the  Infinite,  because  then  will  come  into  play  the  strongest 
chord  of  religious  sentiment — i.e.,  man's  yearning  for  the  Infinite.  In 
humanity,  then,  we  shall  see  not  only  a  being  imposing  in  itself,  but, 
for  us,  the  only  conceivable  image  of  the  Infinite,  and  the  laws  of 
morality,  which  we  derive  from  our  relation  to  humanity,  become  a 
reflection  of  the  supreme  laws  of  the  universe,  which  all  must  obey 
who  wish  to  escape  punishment." 

In  these  views,  it  is  urged,  there  will  be  found  a  point  of  contact 
between  the  schools  of  both  Herbert  Spencer  and  Auguste  Comte, 
and  the  group  of  thinkers  who  claim  that  a  philosophy  of  life  is  to  be 
found  in  the  guidance  of  the  individual  conscience.  "That  which 
these  Moralists  regard  as  philosophy  is  but  the  promptings  of  their 

L 


146  COMTISM   AND   SECULARISM. 

noble  souls.  They  mistake  in  the  supposition  that  every  man  can 
obey  the  dictates  of  inner  nature  just  as  easily  as  they  do,  or  that  he 
will  follow  the  same  direction  of  activity  which  they  choose.  They 
forget  that  the  moral  nature  of  every  man  is  tinged  by  one  or  another 
of  evil  propensities  which  he  inherits  together  with  the  good  ones ; 
and  when  he  attempts  to  arrive  at  some  definite  conclusion  by  the 
dictates  of  his  soul,  he  unconsciously  becomes  the  victim  of  his 
inclination.  It  is  not  enough  to  awake  a  man  from  spiritual  slumber  : 
it  is  necessary  to  keep  before  him  a  certain  standard  of  morality,  so 
as  to  enable  him  to  educate  his  conscience  before  he  will  consult  it." 
Doubtless,  many  men  unconsciously  perform  their  duty  towards  the 
Grand-Etre  by  doing  good,  instead  of  merely  preaching  it.  The 
acceptance  of  the  views  which  Mr.  Frey  advocates  will  make  no 
change  in  the  conduct  of  such  persons ;  it  will  simply  give  them  a 
new  impelling  motive,  and  secure  for  them  an  irresistible  ascendancy, 
by  adding  the  attraction  of  a  solid,  rational  and  ennobling  philosophy 
to  the  charm  of  natural  goodness. 

"  In  conclusion,"  says  Mr.  Frey,  "  the  Religion  of  Humanity  is  the 
only  form  of  Agnosticism  which  can  stand  the  severest  tests  of  sceptics 
and  is  able  to  continue  the  mission  performed  by  the  past  religions. 
Let  us  not  be  afraid  to  indorse  it.  It  will  for  ever  remain  an  embodi- 
ment of  progress,  because,  being  based  on  science,  it  has  no  stationary 
dogmas  which  may  be  outgrown  in  the  future.  The  Religion  of 
Humanity  is  the  only  safe  anchorage  for  those  who  are  tired  both  of 
the  metaphysical  rambles  of  idealists  and  of  the  sophistical  arguments 
of  the  selfish.  Under  its  banner  will  come  all  who  are  in  search  of 
true  religion,  all  who  are  craving  for  spiritual  food,  all  who  find  in 
their  experiences  how  futile  are  the  best  planned  reforms  if  not  illu- 
minated and  sanctified  by  the  religious  sentiment." 

It  simply  remains  to  express  the  opinion  that  if  the  Religion  of 
Humanity  is  destined  to  extend,  it  will  be  in  the  form  indicated  by 
Mr.  Frey.  Even  now,  indeed — except  as  regards  the  Comtist  ritual 
— it  is  the  form  of  faith,  at  once  practical  and  elevated,  which  is  taught 
by  Mr.  Conway  and  by  a  certain  number  of  Unitarian  ministers.  As 
presented  by  the  American  Positivist,  it  answers  to  a  double  tendency 
of  the  modern  mind :  An  aspiration,  on  the  one  hand,  towards 
some  certainty  able  to  close  the  era  of  metaphysical  controversy; 
and,  on  the  other,  a  desire  to  direct  religious  activity  into  channels 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  147 

where  it  will  tend  to  the  individual  and  social  amelioration  of  the 
human  race. 

Having  previously  considered  a  form  of  worship  which  makes  belief 
in  God  optional,  we  have  just  discussed  the  claims  of  another  system 
of  religion,  which  suppresses  it  in  the  most  formal  manner.  Here  we 
come  to  a  third, — if  religion  it  may  be  called — which  goes  so  far  as 
to  proscribe  even  religious  sentiment  itself.  I  refer  to  Secularism, 
which  has,  it  is  true,  provided  itself  with  a  liturgy  for  use  in  all  the 
solemn  circumstances  of  life,  but  which  abstains  from  seeking  its 
support  or  leverage  in  sentiment,  that  is  to  say,  in  those  emotional 
faculties  to  which  the  Positivists  themselves  turn  as  the  essential 
element  of  religion. 

The  aim  of  Secularism  is  to  concentrate  the  activity  of  man  upon 
the  concerns  of  the  present  life,  which  are  under  the  control  of  experi- 
ence. It  starts  from  the  principle  that  we  can  know  nothing  about 
the  existence  of  God  and  the  reality  of  a  future  life ;  and  it  refuses, 
therefore,  to  concern  itself  with  such  questions  either  by  way  of  affir- 
mation or  denial.  The  purpose  which  it  assigns  to  life  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  individual  happiness,  which  it  does  not,  however,  separate 
from  the  happiness  of  all.  But  this  double  result  can  only  be  attained 
by  human  efforts,  based  upon  science  and  experience.  Hence  it 
claims,  in  the  first  place,  the  most  absolute  freedom  of  thought,  and 
in  the  second,  the  right  to  use  this  freedom  in  the  search  for  truth, 
within  the  sphere  of  sensible  observation.  Every  speculation  which 
tends  to  draw  the  mind  from  this  ground,  it  deems  idle  and  therefore 
mischievous.1 

i.  It  may  be  readily  conceded  that  Secularism  possesses  a  noble  aim,  and  this 
aim  is,  in  some  cases,  a  purifying  fire  and  a  source  of  divinest  strength.  Here,  for 
instance,  is  a  fine  passage  from  a  work  entitled,  Secularism  in  its  Various  Relations, 
which,  though  published  anonymously  in  the  Secular  Review,  was  written  by  the 
late  James  Thomson,  a  poet  of  no  mean  gifts — at  least  in  the  opinion  of  George 
Eliot.  Speaking  of  the  happiness  Secularism  aims  at,  the  writer  says: — -"This 
happiness  implies,  firstly,  material  well-being,  sufficiency  of  food,  clothing  and 
house-room,  with  good  air,  good  water,  and  good  sanitary  conditions ;  for  these  things 
are  necessary  to  bodily  health,  and  this  is  essential  to  the  health  of  the  mind  :  and 
only  in  health  is  real  happiness  possible.  Again,  it  implies  mental  well-being, 
sufficiency  of  instruction  and  education  for  every  one,  so  that  his  intellect  may  be 
nourished  and  developed  to  the  full  extent  of  its  capabilities.  Given  the  sound 
mind  in  the  sound  body,  it  further  implies  free  exercise  of  these — absolutely  free  in 
every  respect,  so  long  as  it  does  not  trench  on  the  equal  rights  of  others  or  impede 
the  common  good.     In  this  full  development  of  mind  as  well  as  body,  it  need 


148  COMTISM   AND   SECULARISM. 

This  essentially  utilitarian  doctrine  is  found,  above  all  as  a  tendency, 
in  the  majority  of  contemporary  nations.  But  it  is  only  in  England, 
so  far  as  I  know,  that  there  has  been  any  attempt  to  make  a  religion 
of  it.  It  was  the  two  brothers  Austin  and  G.  J.  Holyoake  who  gave 
an  organized  form  to  Secularism  about  the  year  1846,  by  founding  the 
National  Secular  Society,  which  was  intended  to  become  a  centre  of 
activity  and  propagandism.  But  this  Association  became  at  last  so 
mixed  up  with  the  anti-theological,  political,  and  social  struggles  of 
the  noted  agitator  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  the  editor  of  its  organ,  The  National 
Reformer,  that  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Austin  Holyoake  in  1874,  the 
foremost  leaders  of  the  Secular  movement  set  about  the  formation  of 
a  rival  society,  the  British  Secular  Union,  on  the  following  basis  : — 

"  I. — Principles. 
"  1.  That  the  present  life  being  the  only  one  of  which  we  have  certain 

knowledge,  its  concerns  claim  our  primary  attention. 
"  2.  That  the  promotion  of  our  individual  and  of  the  general  well- 
being  in  this  world  is  at  once  our  highest  wisdom  and  duty. 
"  3.  That  the  only  means  upon  which  we  can  rely  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  object  is  human  effort,  based  upon  knowledge  and 
experience. 
"  4.  We  judge  conduct  by  its  issues  in  this  world  only.     What  con- 
duces to  the  general  well-being  is  right ;  what  has  the  opposite 
tendency  is  wrong. 

scarcely  be  said  that  true  happiness  brings  into  its  service  all  the  noblest  and  most 
beautiful  arts  of  life.  Some  persons  seem  to  fancy  that  Utilitarians  have  nothing 
to  do  with  music,  painting,  sculpture ;  care  nothing  for  the  glories  and  grandeurs  of 
the  world  ;  have  no  part  in  the  treasures  of  the  imagination, — as  if  there  were  no 
utility  in  any  of  these.  But  we  recognize  in  them  the  very  high  utility  of  touching 
to  rapture  some  of  the  finest  chords  in  our  nature ;  we  know  and  feel  just  as  well 
as  others — and  perhaps  better  than  most,  since  we  give  ourselves  more  to  scientific 
study  of  man — that  there  are  different  kinds  and  degrees  of  enjoyment,  and  that 
some  kinds  are  far  superior  to  others,  and  we  know  how  to  value  the  superior  as 
compared  with  the  inferior.  But  yet  more,  this  social  happiness  implies  all  the 
great  virtues  in  those  who  can  attain  and  keep  it  : — Wisdom,  for  without  this, 
transitory  and  selfish  pleasures  will  be  continually  mistaken  for  happiness,  and  even 
with  a  desire  for  the  common  good,  this  good  will  be  misconceived,  and  the  wrong 
means  taken  to  secure  it ;  Fortitude,  to  bear  when  necessary — and  the  necessity  in 
the  present  state  of  the  world  is  as  frequent  as  it  is  stern — deprivation  of  personal 
comfort,  rather  than  stifle  our  aspirations  and  relax  our  efforts  for  the  general 
interest;  Temperance,  for  with  excess  no  permanent  happiness  is  possible; 
Magnanimity,  for  only  by  aid  of  this  virtue  can  we  keep  steadily  in  view,  as  the 
sole  aim  of  all  our  striving,  the  sole  aim  worthy  of  true  men  and  women,  the 
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number :  all  little-mindedness  ever  turns  to  selfishness ; 
Justice,  and  above  all  else  Justice,  for  it  is  the  profound  and  unchangeable  convic- 


COMITSM    AND    SECULARISM.  149 

"  5.  On  all  questions  outside  these  positive  principles  of  Secularism, 
members  are  free  to  hold  any  opinions,  and  to  promulgate  such 
on  their  own  responsibility. 

"  II. — Objects. 

"  1.  The  disseminating,  promoting,  and  popularizing  of  the  above 
principles  by  all  legitimate  means. 

"  2.  The  increasing  of  Secular  Halls  and  Institutes  in  the  cities  and 
towns  of  Great  Britain. 

"  3.  The  advocacy  of  Secular  principles  by  lecturers,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  Secular  lectureships  in  populous  districts. 

"  4.  The  dissemination  of  cheap  literature  expository  or  defensive  of 
the  Society's  principles. 

"  5.  The  removal  of  all  civil  disabilities  grounded  on  belief  and  the 
abolition  of  all  public  grants  for  sectarian  purposes. 

"  6.  The  promotion  of  a  purely  Secular  system  of  national  education. 

"  7.  The  promotion  of  political,  social,  or  religious  reform  in  anywise 
tending  to  increase  the  secular  happiness  of  the  people." 
Such,  then,  are  the  principles  and  aims  of  the  British  Secular 

Union,  which  justly  claims  to  be  the  most  numerous,  influential,  and 

"  respectable  "  of  all  the  free  thinking  Associations  in  England.2    Its 

tion  of  the  equal  rights  of  all  which  alone  can  inspire  and  impel  us  to  seek  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  all :  oppression  since  the  world  began  having  been  based 
on  injustice,  the  oppressors  exaggerating  their  own  rights  at  the  expense  of  those  of 
the  oppressed.  And  to  these  great  virtues  of  the  mind  we  must  add,  as  essential  to 
true  happiness,  what  are  commonly  called  the  virtues  of  the  heart,  the  fervour  of 
Zeal  or  Enthusiasm,  and  the  finer  fervour  of  Benevolence,  Sympathy,  or,  to  use  the 
best  name,  Love.  For  if  Wisdom  gives  the  requisite  light,  Love  alone  can  give  the 
requisite  vital  heat :  Wisdom,  climbing  the  arduous  mountain  solitudes,  must  often 
let  the  lamp  slip  from  her  benumbed  fingers,  must  often  be  near  fainting  in  fatal 
lethargy  amidst  ice  and  snow-drifts,  if  Love  be  not  there  to  cheer  and  revive  her 
with  the  glow  and  the  flames  of  the  heart's  quenchless  fires." 

Now  these  words  breathe  the  spirit  of  a  noble  piety  ;  and  they  might  be  ascribed 
to  a  devout  Theist  of  any  age — to  a  man  capable  of  looking  through  the  ever- 
changing  forms  of  religious  life  and  of  recognising  that  reverence  for  God  must  end 
in  blessedness  for  man.  But  the  great  defect  of  Secularism  is  its  blindness  with 
regard  to  the  true  significance  of  religious  beliefs  and  their  practical  value  in  life. 
Hence  the  Secularist  contemptuously  casts  aside  what  the  philosophical  Theist 
looks  upon  as  a  most  marvellous  natural  provision  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  human 
life.  Nature  cares  for  her  productions  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  even  the  grossest 
forms  of  religious  belief,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  lowest  types  of  civilization 
are  evidences  of  such  care  in  relation  to  the  human  soul.  For  as  Emerson  says,  it 
takes  a  whole  bundle  of  principles  to  make  a  girdle  as  strong  as  one  superstition  in 
the  conduct  of  life ;  while  no  one  who  watches  with  an  unprejudiced  eye  the  calm 
and  happy  days  which  simple  and  perchance  very  superstitious  piety  brings  to  un- 
awakened  minds,  can  doubt  its  consolatory  influence  in  life.     But  Mr.  Thomson 


150  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

president  is  the  Marquis  of  Queensberry ;  Pasteur  and  Renan  are 
among  its  vice-presidents;  while  Victor  Hugo  figures  in  the  Society 
as  an  honorary  member.  The  moral  theories  of  its  principal  sup- 
porters are  absolutely  irreproachable,  and  they  never  lose  a  fitting 
opportunity  for  showing  that  Secularism  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
Atheism,  or  the  entire  negation  of  religion.  Mr.  G.  J.  Holyoake, 
indeed,  has  preached  more  than  once  in  Unitarian  pulpits,  both  in 
England  and  America — a  fact  which  speaks  as  well  for  the  toleration 
of  the  Unitarians  as  it  does  for  his  own.  The  Inquirer  having  once 
expressed  some  surprise  at  this  fact,  Mr.  Holyoake  stated,  in  reply, 
that  Unitarian  ministers  had  often  been  invited  to  speak  at  Secular 
meetings,  and  that  between  Unitarianism  and  Secularism  there  was 
the  common  ground  of  practical  morality. 

The  desire  to  make  Secularism  a  substitute  for  the  old  forms  of 
faith  in  all  the  circumstances  of  life,  has  induced  the  Secularists  to 
provide  themselves  with  a  ritual,  which  is  entitled,  The  Secularist 's 
Manual  of  Songs  and  Ceremonies?  Drawn  up  by  Austin  Holyoake 
and  Charles  Watts,  it  constitutes  a  true  Secular  liturgy  for  the  naming 
of  children,  for  marriage,  for  funerals,  &c.  The  preface,  which  is 
written  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  explains  that  this  ritual  answers  to  a  pressing 

seems  to  see  nothing  of  all  this  ;  the  wisdom  of  which  he  speaks  has  brought  him  no 
spiritual  insight.  In  common  with  a  very  large  number  of  Secularists  his  attitude 
to  religion  is  hostile  and  negative  ;  he  is  influenced  by  a  sort  of  chronic  phase 
of  that  fever  of  Scepticism  which,  as  Schiller  tells  us,  has  to  be  passed  through 
by  all  the  best  minds  in  their  transition  from  the  religion  of  dogmatic  authority  to 
that  of  consciousness  or  personal  choice.  Hence  he  says  of  God  :  "The  true  Secu- 
larist loves  and  reveres  his  fellow  men  whom  he  knows,  not  a  phantasmal  God- 
Fiend  of  whom  he  knows  nothing."  Then  again  of  Christianity  his  words  are : 
"  It  is  ignoble  in  what  it  deems  its  noblest  emotions,  its  love  and  reverence  and 
adoration  of  the  Deity,  its  ecstacies  of  Divine  influx  and  communion.  For  these 
emotions  are  irrational,  the  object  of  the  love  is  a  dream  and  a  delusion,  the  God 
revered  and  worshipped  is  pourtrayed  in  its  own  Bible  as  capricious,  unjust,  vindic- 
tive, merciless  ;  and  these  orgies  of  religious  excitement  which  overstrain,  rend,  and 

often  ruin  the  moral  fibre,  are  as  harmful  as  any  other  drunken  revels 

It  (Christianity)  is  thus  essentially  stagnant  and  inert ;  it  does  but  little  useful  work 
in  the  world ;  it  is  perishing  of  atrophy,  brain  and  heart  and  limbs  irretrievably 
wasting  away.  In  this  life  it  has  no  future  ;  its  future  is  in  the  life  to  come  (or  not 
to  come!) ;  its  ideal  is  in  the  past,  to  which  its  vacant  eyes  are  ever  reverted  in  the 
dense  gloom  of  its  prison-cell." — These  extracts  speak  for  themselves;  and  they 
will  show  the  reader  that  though  Secularism  professes  to  be  neutral  with  regard  to 
religion,  it  is  not  seldom  blindly  and  bitterly  hostile  to  all  that  the  vast  majority  of 
mankind  have  hitherto  looked  upon  as  divine.  —  Translator. 

2.  See  the  Secular  Review  for  the  19th  of  August,  1882. 

3.  London  :  Austin  &  Co. 


COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM.  151 

and  frequently-expressed  need  of  the  English  Freethinkers. — "  As  to 
the  Marriage  Service,"  it  adds,  "the  Socialists  formerly,  and  the 
Comtists  recently,  set  us  an  example :  the  legal  ceremony  must  be 
gone  through  before  the  Registrar,  but  the  marriage  can  be  celebrated 
in  the  usual  place  of  meeting.  The  Naming  of  Infants  is  a  frequent 
matter  at  our  meetings,  and  a  set  form  saves  the  possibility  of  the 
introduction  of  ridiculous  or  objectionable  words.  For  the  Burial 
Service,  the  last  funeral  I  attended — in  which  emotion  prevented  me 
from  completing  my  address  at  the  grave — convinced  me  of  the  need 
to  have  some  form  of  words  always  at  hand  for  such  occasions." 

It  would  require  too  much  space  to  reproduce  this  manual  in  its 
entirety;  I  will  merely  quote  the  first  and  last  paragraphs  of  the 
address  prepared  for  the  naming  of  children  : — 

"  In  publicly  naming  the  infant  now  before  us,  we  recognise  the 
parents'  desire  to  identify  their  offspring  with  the  Secular  Party,  which 
proclaims  the  necessity  of  unfettered  thought  during  the  formation  of 
character.  Diversity  of  organization  precludes  uniformity  of  belief. 
We  do  not,  therefore,  guarantee  that  in  after-life  a  child  shall  profess 
any  class  of  opinions.  But  by  keeping  its  mind  free  from  theological 
creeds,  we  enable  it  the  better  to  acquire  a  more  liberal  education 
than  is  permitted  by  the  conventional  faith  of  the  Church."  .  .  . 
"We  sincerely  hope  that  in  after-life  (here  name  the  child)  he  (if 
the  child  be  a  girl,  substitute  the  feminine  gender)  may  have  reason  to 
rejoice  in  his  fellowship  with  us.  May  the  principles  of  Freethought 
enable  him  to  brave  successfully  the  battle  of  life.  And  as  he  sails 
o'er  the  billows  of  time,  may  experience  increase  his  guiding  power, 
that  when  arriving  at  maturity,  he  shall  have  acquired  sufficient  know- 
ledge to  enable  him  to  regulate  aright  his  further  career.  And  when 
the  evening  of  his  existence  has  arrived,  may  he  obtain  consolation 
from  the  reflection  that  his  conduct  has  won  the  approval  of  the  wise 
and  the  good,  and  that  to  the  best  of  his  ability  he  has  been  faithful 
to  the  mission  of  life." 

This  extract  shows  how  completely  the  Secularists  have  succeeded 
in  excluding  every  element  of  sentiment  and  imagination  from  their 
solemn  ceremonies.  Their  manual  certainly  embodies  a  considerable 
number  of  hymns,  but  apart  from  a  few  which  are  pretty  freely 
suffused  with  the  breath  of  Pantheism,  these  utilitarian  lyrics  are  of  so 


152  COMTISM   AND    SECULARISM. 

commonplace  a  character  that  in  some  cases  they  border  on  parody, 
not  to  say  more  in  disparagement  of  them.1 

Now,  however  foreign  these  productions  may  appear  to  the  religious 
sentiment,  they  are  none  the  less  fitted  to  show  that  the  fundamental 
religiousness  of  the  English  character  persists,  even  under  the  guise 
of  modern  scepticism.  Thus  the  claim  of  the  Secularists  to  find  a 
substitute  for  religion  and  their  attempts  to  imitate  its  forms,  and  to 
paraphrase  its  language,  are,  in  a  sense,  the  counter-proof  of  the  same 
tendencies  which  are  revealed  under  other  circumstances  by  the  doings 
of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  in  the  persistent  growth  of  the  strangest 
sects.  To-day,  we  are  certainly  far  enough  from  the  state  of  things 
which  justified  Montesquieu  in  saying,  on  his  return  from  London  : 
"  La  religion  est  morte  en  Angleterre.  Si  quelqu'un  parle  de  religion, 
tout  le  monde  se  met  a  rire." 

It  is  true  the  religious  re-action  which  swept  away,  during  the  first 

half  of  this  century,  the  indifference  of  the  preceding  period,  seems 

to  have  passed  its  culminating  point,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  in 

the  presence  of  the  difficulty  of  adjusting  ancient  beliefs  to  modern 

ideas,  a  new  wave  of  scepticism  may  roll  over  English  society.     But 

what  conclusion  should  be  drawn  from  these  oscillations  of  the  religious 

sentiment,  other  than  a  lesson  of  more  cautious  judgment  on  the  part 

of  those  who,  yielding  to  the  feeling  of  the  moment  or  the  whim  of 

the  hour,  delight  to  proclaim,  in  turn,  the  final  triumph  of  a  definite 

faith,  or  the  fading  twilight  of  the  last  day  of  the  gods  ?     The  most 

we  can  clearly  deduce  from  these  phases  of  belief  is  the  law  which, 

through  all  the  oscillations  of  the  English  spirit,  reveals  to  us  the 

steady  progress  of  religious  thought  towards  a  ,more  rational  view  of 

man's  relation  to  the  universe. 

I.  Here,  for  instance,  are  the  verses  intended  to  replace  the  Ite  Missa  est,  in 
Secular  meetings  : — 

"DISMISSION." 
"  Farewell,  dear  friends !  adieu,  adieu  ; 
In  social  ways  delight ; 
Then  happiness  will  dwell  with  you  : 
Farewell,  dear  friends  !  good-night. 

"  Farewell,  dear  friends!  adieu,  adieu  ; 
Remember  us  this  night ; 
We  claim  to  do  the  same  for  you  : 
Farewell,  dear  friends!  good-night. 

"  Farewell,  dear  friends  !  adieu,  adieu  ; 
Till  we  again  unite  ; 
The  social  system  keep  in  view  : 

Farewell,  dear  friends  !  good-night." 


PART     II. 
CHAPTER     VII 


THE  GENESIS  OF  UNITARIANISM  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES. 


Puritan  origin  of  New  England— John  Robinson  exhorting  the  pilgrims  of  the  May 
Flower  not  to  confine  themselves  to  the  theology  of  Luther  and  Calvin— What 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  sought  in  America— The  Democratic  and  Autonomous 
organization  of  the  Calvinistic  congregations— Their  intolerance— The  causes 
which  were  destined  to  gradually  lead  Puritan  society  to  the  admission  of  religious 
liberty— Arminian  re-action  against  the  dogma  of  Predestination— Early  con- 
troversies between  religious  liberals  and  Calvinists— Liberal  tendencies  of  the 
Harvard  University— Channing  in  1815— His  Baltimore  sermon— Rapid  develop- 
ment of  Unitarianism— Divisions  in  the  old  Calvinistic  congregations— Founda- 
tion of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  at  Boston— The  liberal  side  and  the 
rationalistic  side  of  the  Unitarian  development ;  their  relative  importance— Weak 
points  in  the  theology  of  Channing. 


As  every  one  is  aware,  the  religious  sentiment  played  an  important 
part  in  the  colonization  of  Anglo-Saxon  America.  Three  out  of  the 
four  great  settlements  which  the  English  founded  on  the  western 
shores  of  the  Atlantic,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  owed  their  origin 
to  those  who  had  been  proscribed  on  account  of  their  religious 
opinions :  the  Puritans  in  New  England,  the  Catholics  in  Maryland, 
and  the  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania.  It  was  above  all  the  first  of  these 
three  elements  which  became  an  all-important  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  American  society.  For  it  is  its  impress,  modified  by  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  which  even  to-day,  in  spite  of  the  incessant  influence 
of  emigration,  is  still  to  be  everywhere  found  beneath  the  existing 
beliefs,  customs  and  institutions  of  the  United  States. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  Puritan  movement  began  in  England 
as  early  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  in  the  shape  of  protestations  against 
the  Liturgy  and  the  official  hierarchy.  Spreading  chiefly  among  the 
populace,  it  carried  to  extremes  the  democratic  and  religious  prin- 
ciples of  Calvinism.  It  will  be  readily  understood,  therefore,  that  its 
adherents  soon  came  into  collision  with  the  established  authority. 
But  the  persecutions  they  underwent  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 


156  THE   GENESIS   OF   UNITARIANISM 

James  I.  merely  served  to  increase  their  numbers.1  In  1608,  when 
the  great  majority  of  them  were  resigned  to  passively  endure  fines  or 
imprisonment  and  even  death  itself  on  their  native  soil — awaiting  the 
terrible  revenge  which,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Presbyterians,  they 
were  soon  to  inflict  upon  their  persecutors — the  most  ardent  and 
energetic,  under  the  leadership  of  John  Robinson,  the  former  pastor 
of  a  congregation  at  Scrooby,  fled  to  Leyden,  in  Holland. 

In  this  retreat  they  lived  quietly  for  several  years.  Still  their  small 
community  became  more  and  more  reduced,  and  it  was  not  difficult 
to  foresee  that  it  would  be  ultimately  absorbed  by  the  Protestantism 
of  Holland.  They  conceived,  therefore,  the  bold  project  of  founding 
a  sort  of  religious  colony  in  America,  which  should  admit  of  their 
remaining  connected  with  England  and  even  receiving  recruits  from 
the  mother  country,  by  assuring  them  an  asylum  against  new  persecu- 
tion. Had  they  at  that  time  any  vision  of  the  future  that  would  open 
up  before  them?  Be  this  as  it  may,  their  boldest  dreams  must 
assuredly  have  fallen  far  short  of  the  great  things  their  descendants 
have  realized. 

The  British  Government,  which  simply  desired  to  free  the  country 
of  sectarians,  alike  troublesome  to  the  Church  and  the  State,  did  not 
long  hesitate  to  grant  them  the  distant  concession  in  Virginia  for 
which  they  asked;  and  the  first  body  of  emigrants,  numbering  a 
hundred  men,  women  and  children,  embarked  on  board  the  May 
Flower  on  the  27th  pf  July,  1620 — a  date  and  a  name  of  classic 
import  in  the  United  States.  Our  readers  are  doubtless  aware  how 
the  chances  of  the  voyage  led  the  emigrants  to  land  on  the  shores  of 
New  England,  and  how  they  availed  themselves  of  this  circumstance 
to  organize  in  their  own  fashion  an  authority  on  this  free  soil,  which 
was  centred  in  themselves  alone,  and  was  not  due  in  any  way  to  the 
concession  of  a  King  or  a  company. 

John  Robinson  had  remained  in  Europe,  where  he  was  making 

preparations  to  embark  with  the  remainder  of  the  community.     Like 

a  new  Moses,  however,  death  was  to  strike  him  down  before  he  could 

reach  the  promised  Canaan.     In  his  farewell  address  to  the  pioneers 

of  the  Puritan  emigration,  on  the  Leyden  quay,  he  uttered  these 

1.  It  was  stated  in  Parliament,  in  1593,  that  more  than  twenty  thousand  persons 
frequented  conventicles,  and  a  proposition  was  advanced  that  they  should  be  banished 
from  the  country,  as  the  Moors  had  been  from  Spain.— Bancroft's  History  of  the 
United  States. 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  157 

words,  which  may  well  be  regarded  as  prophetic,  whatever  the  sense  he 
attached  to  them :  "  The  Lord  has  more  truth  to  break  forth  from  his 
Holy  Word.  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail  the  condition  of  the  reformed 
churches  who  are  come  to  a  period  in  religion  and  will  go  at  present 
no  further  than  the  instruments  of  their  reformation.  Luther  and 
Calvin  were  great  and  shining  lights  in  their  times;  yet  they  penetrated 
not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God,"  (Bancroft's  History  of  the  United 
States). 

This  language  was  not  to  fall  upon  barren  soil.  Still  it  was  too 
much  in  advance  of  its  time  to  be  immediately  applied  and  under- 
stood by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  or  indeed  by  him  who 
uttered  it.  What  the  pilgrims  of  the  May  Flotver,  fleeing  from  the 
persecutions  of  the  Established  Church,  demanded  of  the  New  World, 
was  not  religious  liberty  as  a  general  principle  but  their  religious 
liberty,  that  is  the  right  to  form  a  Church  after  their  own  fashion, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  English  hierarchy  or  the  use  of  the 
English  Liturgy.  The  government  which  they  formed  was  a  true 
democracy ;  but  it  was  emphatically  a  theocratic  democracy,  and  we 
should  seek  in  vain  for  anything  in  its  constitution  conformable  to 
modern  ideas,  either  in  relation  to  Church  and  State,  or  even  in 
regard  to  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  liberty  of  worship. 

The  Bible  was  their  supreme  law ;  it  was  to  inspire  and  supplement 
written  laws.  Their  first  care,  when  they  founded  any  settlement, 
was  to  build  a  church,  which  soon  became  the  centre  of  their  in-, 
dividual  and  social  life.  The  first  election  was  that  of  a  Minister  and 
Elders.  The  expenses  of  worship  were  charged  upon  all  the  in- 
habitants ;  but  the  rights  of  citizenship  belonged  to  "communicants" 
only,  and  the  religious  society  reserved  to  itself  the  power  to  excom- 
municate infidels,  sinners,  or  even  the  lukewarm  whose  only  crime 
was  that  they  did  not  consider  themselves  "in  a  state  of  grace."  The 
first  dissenters  from  the  Puritan  faith  who  wished  to  settle  in  the 
infant  colony — two  members  of  the  English  Church — were  sent  back 
to  England  by  the  ship  which  brought  them.  A  series  of  Draconian 
laws  closed  the  entrance  into  New  England  to  Anabaptists,  Antino- 
mians,  Quakers  and  Catholics.  In  case  of  infraction,  heretics  were 
exposed  to  whipping  and  mutilation,  and  also  to  forced  labour,  "  till 
they  could  be  sent  back  at  their  own  expense."  The  blasphemer  and 
the  Sabbath -breaker  were  liable  to  punishment  which  might  even  ex- 


158  THE   GENESIS   OF   UNITARIANISM 

tend  to  death  itself.  This  ferocious  legislation  did  not  remain  a  dead 
letter.  New  England  had,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  its  Calas,  its 
Labarre  and  its  Urbain  Grandier :  in  Massachusetts  witches  were 
executed  down  to  the  year  1692. 

It  would,  however,  be  unjust  to  forget  that  notwithstanding  its 
intolerence,  its  austerity,  and  its  narrowness  of  horizon,  Calvinism,  of 
all  the  current  faiths  of  the  epoch,  was  best  fitted  to  make  of  a  handful 
of  emigrants  the  founders  of  a  great  and  free  nation.  It  is  impossible 
not  to  observe  its  influence  in  the  qualities  which  distinguished  the 
first  emigrants,  and  which  are  still  prevalent  among  their  descendants  : 
confidence  in  the  power  of  individual  organization,  determined  per- 
sistence of  labour,  a  taste  for  learning,  with  respect  for  women  and  a 
sentiment  of  the  seriousness  of  life.  We  may  smile  at  the  minute  and 
often  vexatious  rules  in  which  the  Puritan  genius  thought  to  find  a 
barrier  to  the  corruption  of  manners ;  but  American  Puritanism  has 
none  the  less  given,  to  the  society,  marked  with  its  impress,  two 
centuries  of  a  morality  more  sincere  and  more  general,  if  not  indeed 
higher,  than  any  other  people  has  known. 

In  short,  the  world  is  indebted  to  it  for  having  made  men  equal 
and  free.  Constitutions  drawn  up  with  a  great  reinforcement  of 
Biblical  texts,  in  the  first  years  of  colonization,  were  so  impregnated 
with  the  idea  of  self-government,  that,  except  in  those  features  which 
were  contrary  to  liberty  of  conscience,  they  have  remained  nearly 
intact,  down  to  the  present  day,  in  the  New  England  States,  and  have 
served  as  models  for  the  Federal  Constitution,  as  well  as  for  the  par- 
ticular constitutions  of  the  States  subsequently  formed  in  the  Union. 

The  religious  organization  of  Calvinism  was  itself  only  an  applica- 
tion of  popular  sovereignty.  With  Calvinists,  the  priest  is  no  longer 
a  being  of  superior  virtue,  invested  with  supernatural  authority  by  the 
fact  of  his  ordination,  but  simply  a  representative  of  his  fellow- 
believers,  the  first  among  equals.  It  is  universal  suffrage,  "the 
universal  vote  of  the  congregation  of  Christ,"  as  Milton  said,  which 
forms  the  basis  of  association,  appoints  the  officers,  the  pastor  in- 
cluded, fixes  the  contribution  of  each  member,  tests  the  receipts  and 
expenditure  and  decides  all  pending  questions,  without  appeal.  In- 
deed, among  the  Puritans,  as  at  present  among  the  Congregationalists 
— their  direct  descendents — the  body  of  the  faithful  constituted,  not 
a  Church,  but  a  collection  of  Churches  absolutely  independent  and 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  159 

autonomous.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  greatly  this  organization 
which,  notwithstanding  the  parallel  development  of  the  Anglican  and 
Caltholic  communions,  may  be  considered  even  to-day  as  the  national 
type  par  excellence  of  the  American  Church,  must  have  favoured  the 
establishment  of  democracy  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the 
republic.  But  it  must  equally  have  led,  by  gradual  extension,  to  the 
legal  equality  of  other  Churches,  which,  by  the  same  principle  claimed 
to  interpret  the  Bible  in  their  own  way ;  and  this  breach  being  once 
opened  to  the  multiplicity  of  the  Protestant  sects,  the  civil  tolerance 
of  all  opinions  in  religious  matters  was  only  a  question  of  time. 

It  is  true  the  old  world  outran  the  new  in  this  respect,  since  we  find 
that  as  late  as  1838  a  citizen  of  Boston  was  condemned  to  a  term  of 
imprisonment  for  the  crime  of  Atheism.  But — while  it  is  to  the 
adversaries  of  the  Church  that  we  owe  liberty  of  worship  in  Europe — 
in  the  United  States,  it  is  the  natural  product  of  an  evolution  which 
began  in  the  religious  origin  of  the  nation.  The  pastor,  Roger 
Williams,  when  he  founded  in  1636  the  colony  of  Providence  (now 
the  State  of  Rhode-Island)  upon  the  principle  of  absolute  liberty  and 
equal  advantage  for  all  forms  of  worship;1  William  Penn  inserting,  in 
1681,  in  the  Charter  of  the  State  which  bears  his  name,  the  prohibi- 
tion of  defraying  the  expense  of  any  worship  whatever  from  the  public 
treasury,  "  in  order  to  prevent  the  ascendancy  of  any  one  sect  above 
another;"  the  members  of  the  first  Congress  who  forbade  imposing 
a  religious  oath  on  the  federal  officers  as  well  as  the  imposition  of  laws 
"relating  to  the  establishment  or  to  the  prohibition  of  a  religion;" 

1.  The  colonization  of  Rhode-Island  is  certainly  the  starting-point  of  religious 
liberty  in  the  United  States.  It  has  often  been  asserted  that  the  Catholics,  who 
founded,  with  Lord  Baltimore,  the  colony  of  Maryland  in  1649,  established  there 
the  principle  of  religious  liberty.  It  is  true  the  Charter  of  this  colony  states  that,  in 
order  to  better  assure  the  maintenance  of  reciprocal  charity  and  friendship  among 
the  inhabitants,  no  one,  provided  that  he  professes  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  shall 
be  troubled,  disturbed,  or  molested  in  his  opinions  or  in  the  public  worship  con- 
nected with  them.  But  in  another  passage  of  the  same  Act,  it  is  said  that  any  one 
who  blasphemes  the  name  of  God,  or  denies  the  Holy  Trinity  or  one  of  the  Persons 
composing  it,  shall  be  punished  with  death  (Ed.  Laboulaye,  Histoire  des  Etas  Unis. 
Paris,  1855).  On  the  other  hand,  the  Charter  of  Rhode-Island,  which  was  drawn 
up  in  1643,  conformably  to  the  liberal  views  of  Roger  Williams,  and  was  confirmed 
in  1663  by  the  British  Government,  proclaims  the  most  absolute  liberty  of  conscience. 
"  This  colony,"  wrote  the  fanatic  Col  ton  Mather,  in  1649  (quoted  by  Ed.  Laboulaye), 
1 '  is  a  hi ve  of  Antinomians,  Anti-Sabbatarians,  Socinians,  Quakers,  Convulsionaries — 
in  a  word,  of  all  creeds  but  those  of  true  Christians.  If  a  man  lost  his  belief,  he 
would  be  sure  to  find  it  in  some  village  of  Rhode-Island.     Bona  terra,  mala  gens." 


160  THE   GENESIS   OF   UNITARIANISM 

and  finally,  the  local  legislators  who  established  these  principles,  in 
the  special  constitutions  of  their  States,  were,  speaking  generally, 
anything  but  sceptics  or  rationalists :  they  were  believers  convinced 
of  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  excellence  of  their  worship. 
MM.  Laboulaye,  De  Laveleye  and  the  other  apologists  of  American 
democracy  are  right  in  claiming  that  the  political  and  the  religious 
liberty  of  the  United  States  are  both  daughters  of  the  Reformation ; 
only,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  second  is  much  the  younger. 

But  there  is  a  liberty  of  another  order  which,  though  much  younger, 
may  claim  the  same  descent :  this  is  intellectual  liberty,  the  rejection 
of  dogmatic  prejudices,  in  a  word,  Rationalism.  In  this  case  again 
Europe  was  in  advance  of  America.  Still,  here,  too,  an  important 
distinction  is  to  be  noted.  It  is  that,  among  the  peoples  of  our  Con- 
tinent standing  at  the  head  of  modern  culture,  science  has  developed 
in  an  inverse  ratio  to  religion ;  while  in  the  United  States  the  most 
complete  free  inquiry  appeared  as  the  final  outcome  of  religious  evo- 
lution. From  John  Robinson  to  Theodore  Parker,  the  line  of  descent 
is  unbroken. 

The  first  immigrants  professed  Calvin's  doctrines  of  Original  Sin, 
Grace,  and  Predestination  in  all  their  integrity.  But  this  gloomy 
fatalism  by  which  man,  incapable  of  attaining  to  any  good  by  his  own 
efforts,  finds  himself  elected  beforehand,  by  the  arbitrary  decree  of  his 
Creator,  to  salvation  or  damnation,  shocked  too  much  the  most  ele- 
mentary principles  of  justice  and  humanity  not  to  speedily  provoke 
a  reaction  in  conformity  with  the  requirements  of  human  liberty  and 
responsibility.  The  third  generation  of  the  Puritans  had  not  disap- 
peared indeed  before  the  dogma  of  predestination  was  found  to  clash 
with  its  old  enemy  Arminianism,  which  is  the  last  stage  before  Deism, 
according  to  the  remark  of  Wilberforce.  In  1737,  several  New  England 
ministers  began  to  teach  that  though  human  nature  had  doubtless 
been  rendered  essentially  corrupt  by  original  sin,  still,  owing  to  the 
Expiation  on  the  Cross,  man  had  been  made  to  a  certain  extent  the 
master  of  his  own  destiny.  And  though  it  was  readily  admitted  that 
salvation  must  be  regarded  as  the  work  of  divine  grace,  it  was  never- 
theless held  that  this  grace  was  accorded  to  those  most  worthy  of  it. 

Arminianism  having  once  secured  a  footing,  Socinianism  was  not  long 
in  making  its  appearance.  President  Adams  said  at  the  end  of  his  career 
that,  from  1750,  a  number  of  pastors  and  of  the  laity  were  more  or  less 


IN    THE   UNITED    STATES.  161 

drawn  over  to  Unitarianism.  But  still,  the  progress  of  this  evolution 
was  at  first  apparent  only  by  the  guarded  silence  respecting  contested 
dogmas.  Perhaps  the  Liberals  were  frightened  at  their  own  audacity, 
or  did  not  exactly  realize  their  beliefs.  Even  at  the  end  of  the  century, 
when  other  recently  created  sects  (the  Universalists,  the  "  Christians") 
had  openly  repudiated  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  the  advanced  Cal- 
vinists  still  rejected  the  qualification  of  Unitarians,  and  even  main- 
tained the  necessity  of  remaining  in  doubt  upon  all  points  of  doctrine, 
— such  as  predestination,  eternal  punishment,  the  divinity  of  Christ, — 
when  the  Bible  did  not  express  itself  in  clear  and  formal  terms.  "  The 
expressions  of  the  Bible  are  only  qualified  to  formulate  Biblical 
mysteries.''  Such  was  the  answer  they  invariably  opposed  to  their 
adversaries,  when  the  latter  summoned  them  to  define  their  belief. 
Thus,  by  a  strange  inversion  of  parts,  it  was  the  Rationalists  who  wished 
to  hold  strictly  to  the  letter  of  revelation,  while  the  orthodox  cried  up 
the  right  and  the  duty  of  penetrating  into  its  sense  and  developing  its 
consequences.  But  this  position  was  not  long  tenable  for  the  Liberals  ; 
and  the  true  ground  of  conflict  was  delineated  when,  driven  to  the 
wall,  they  brought  into  the  controversy  the  authority  of  natural  religion 
and  historical  criticism. 

In  1805,  Harvard  University,  which  dated  almost  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  colonization,  but  which  had  always  shown  itself  hospitable 
to  the  most  advanced  tendencies,  confided  its  Chair  of  Theology  to  a 
liberal  minister,  Dr.  Ware.  "  They. who  came  under  Dr.  Ware's  in- 
fluence," wrote  one  of  his  pupils — Ezra  Stiles  Gannett — at  a  later 
period,  "  can  never  forget  the  calm  dignity,  the  practical  wisdom,  the 
judicial  fairness,  or  the  friendly  interest  which  secured  for  him  more 
than  respect.  It  was  veneration  that  we  felt.  That  clear,  strong 
mind  abhorred  double  dealing  with  truth  or  with  men."1    Such  was 

1.  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  Unitarian  minister  in  Boston ;  A  Memoir,  by  his  son, 
W.  C.  Gannett.  Boston,  1S75. — Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  the  disciple  and  co-worker- 
with  Channing,  exercised  ministerial  functions  at  Boston  from  1824  to  1871,  with  a 
devotedness  which  was  characterized  by  a  modesty  equal  to  its  intensity.  His 
biography,  written  with  pious  care  by  his  son,  Mr.  W.  C.  Gannett,  embodies  infor- 
mation on  the  religious  life  of  New  England  which  is  all  the  more  instructive 
because  the  author  has  skilfully  grouped  around  the  sympathetic  figure  of  his  hero 
the  events  and  personages  of  the  whole  period.  The  work  has  been  reprinted  in  a 
popular  edition  by  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association.  It  is  surprising 
that  no  liberal  Protestant  writer  has  been  as  yet  tempted  to  translate  it  into  French, 
since  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  striking  description  of  Unitarianism  and 
its  teachers. 

M 


162  THE   GENESIS   OF   UNITARIANISM 

the  theologian  who  was  about  to  mould  the  future  ministers  of  the 
national  church.  The  orthodox  cried  out  against  the  scandal,  and 
established  at  Andover  a  school  of  theology,  which  was  never  to  attain 
the  celebrity  of  its  rival.  At  the  same  time,  they  began  to  build 
churches  for  the  voluntary  exiles  from  the  liberal  congregations ;  and, 
where  they  were  in  the  majority,  as  in  Connecticut  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, they  improvised  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  which  expelled  liberal 
ministers  from  the  pulpit.  An  attempt  was  even  made  to  introduce 
this  procedure  into  Massachusetts,  where  Liberalism  had  its  head- 
quarters, but  it  failed,  and  served  only  to  precipitate  the  development 
of  the  schism. 

This  was  in  1815.  W.  E.  Channing  was  then  thirty-five  years  old. 
He  had  already  officiated  for  more  than  twelve  years  in  one  of  the 
most  liberal  and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the  most  fashionable 
churches  in  Boston.  His  antecedents,  his  mental  temperament,  and 
even  the  amplitude  of  his  religious  conceptions  predisposed  him  to 
great  caution  in  order  to  preserve  the  historic  unity  of  the  old  Puritan 
congregations.  But  an  accusation  of  hypocrisy,  which  Dr.  Morse  had 
openly  thrown  out  against  liberal  ministers,  led  him  boldly  to  vindicate 
the  Unitarian  name,  and  soon  to  take  the  head  of  the  reformatory 
movement.  It  was  only  four  years  later  that  he  pronounced  at  Balti- 
more the  famous  sermon,  considered  the  definitive  manifesto  of 
American  Unitarianism.  "  It  made  a  sensation,"  says  one  of  the 
best  historians  of  this  period,  Mr.  W.  C  Gannett,  "  greater  probably 
than  any  other  sermon  ever  preached  in  America,  before  or  since."1 

After  having  declared  that  he  accepted,  "  without  reserve  or  excep- 
tion," all  the  doctrines  clearly  taught  by  the  Scriptures,  Channing 
claimed  that  "  the  meaning  [of  the  Scriptures]  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
same  manner  as  that  of  other  books ; "  that  is  to  say,  by  the  constant 
exercise  of  reason.  "  It  is  to  the  tribunal  of  reason,"  said  he,  formally, 
"that  God  leaves  the  care  of  deciding  the  truth  of  revelation." 
Starting  from  this  principle,  he  repudiated  the  favourite  dogmas  of 
Calvinism,  in  order  to  reduce  the  essential  teachings  of  Scripture  to 
the  unity  of  God,  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  to  the  regenerative 
mission  of  Jesus,  to  the  moral  perfection  and  the  paternal  government 
of  the  Creator.  In  fine,  after  an  eloquent  picture  of  the  Christian 
virtues,  he  maintained  that  true  Christianity  consisted  much  more 

I.  W.  C.  Gannett,  Op.  Cit.,  p.  55. 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  163 

in  the  practice  of  these  virtues  than  in  adhesion  to  any  credo  whatever. 
"To  all  who  hear  me,"  'concluded  he,  "I  would  say  with  the  apostle, 
'  Prove  all  things,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.'  Do  not,  brethren, 
shrink  from  the  duty  of  searching  God's  Word  for  yourselves,  through 
fear  of  human  censure  and  denunciation.  Do  not  think  that  you 
may  innocently  follow  the  opinions  which  prevail  around  you,  without 
investigation,  on  the  ground  that  Christianity  is  now  so  purified  from 
errors  as  to  need  no  laborious  research.  .  .  .  Much  stubble  is  yet 
to  be  burned ;  much  rubbish  to  be  removed  ;  many  gaudy  decorations, 
which  a  false  taste  has  hung  around  Christianity,  must  be  swept  away ; 
and  the  earth-born  fogs,  which  have  long  shrouded  it,  must  be  scat- 
tered before  this  divine  fabric  will  rise  before  us  in  its  native  and 
awful  majesty,  in  its  harmonious  proportions,  in  its  mild  and  celestial 
splendours.  This  glorious  reformation  in  the  Church,  we  hope — 
under  God's  blessing — from  the  progress  of  the  human  intellect,  from 
the  moral  progress  of  society,  from  the  consequent  decline  of  preju- 
dice and  of  bigotry,  and,  though  last,  not  least,  from  the  subversion 
of  human  authority  in  religion,  from  the  fall  of  those  hierarchies  and 
other  human  institutions  by  which  the  minds  of  individuals  are 
oppressed  under  the  weight  of  numbers  and  a  papal  dominion  is 
perpetuated  in  the  Protestant  Church." 

It  has  been  said,  with  reason,  that  this  discourse  marked  an  epoch 
in  the  religious  history  of  modern  society.  Undoubtedly,  there  had 
been  seen  elsewhere  Christians  proclaiming  the  necessity  of  bringing 
faith  into  accord  with  the  progress  of  reason ;  but  never,  since  the 
foundation  of  Christianity,  had  the  head  of  a  church  repudiated  thus 
boldly  all  sectarian  intolerance,  and  so  openly  declared  war  against 
every  form  of  Orthodoxy.  Calvin  put,  or  replaced,  democracy  into 
Christianity  :  Channing  introduced  liberty. 

In  her  previous  history,  New  England  had  generally  had  but  one 
church  and  one  pastor  in  a  town.  But,  from  this  time,  old  congrega- 
tions were  divided.  Boston,  which  for  a  long  time  had  proved  itself 
the  intellectual  capital  of  the  United  States,  was  almost  entirely  con- 
quered by  the  new  ideas.  In  Massachusetts,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  congregations  broke  away  from  Calvinism,  and,  among  them,  the 
first  three  churches  which  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  founded  upon  the 
shores  of  America.  To  this  number  may  be  added  the  numerous 
liberal  churches  which,  in  imitation  of  the  Calvinists,  the  Unitarians 


164  THE   GENESIS   OF   UNITARIANISM 

founded  wherever  they  withdrew  from  the  existing  church.  In  the 
neighbouring  States,  the  movement  made  less  sensible  progress ;  but 
congregations,  which  became  centres  of  propagandism,  were  established 
successively  in  Baltimore,  New  York,  Charleston,  Philadelphia,  Wash- 
ington, and  even  in  cities  of  the  West. 

Notwithstanding  the  reluctance  of  those  who  feared  lest  in  creating 
an  ecclesiastical  organization  they  should  follow  too  closely  the  steps 
of  Orthodoxy,  the  American  Unitarian  Association  for  "  diffusing  the 
knowledge  and  promoting  the  interests  of  pure  Christianity,"  was 
founded  at  Boston  in  1825.  It  was  not,  however,  a  federation  of 
Churches,  but  an  association  of  individuals,  who,  in  creating  a  valu- 
able agency  for  the  spread  of  Unitarian  opinions,  never  aimed  at  a 
system  of  denominational  discipline. 

In  fine,  the  Unitarian  reformation  represented  a  double  effort :  on 
one  side,  to  give  to  Christianity  a  form  more  humane,  more  rational, 
and  better  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  the  age;  on  the  other,  to 
substitute,  in  the  formation  of  churches,  sympathy  of  religious  senti- 
ment for  agreement  in  dogmatic  belief.  Of  these  two  features,  the 
first,  which  seemed  to  contemporaries  the  more  audacious,  was,  in 
reality,  the  less  important  for  the  future  of  Unitarianism.  In  sup- 
pressing the  theological  basis  of  the  Church,  Unitarians  gave  to 
religion  the  elasticity  necessary  to  accommodate  it  to  all  the  trans- 
formations which  the  ulterior  development  of  scientific  knowledge 
could  require.  They  made  it  a  religion  indefinitely  progressive,  like 
the  human  mind  itself.  Their  doctrinal  innovations,  on  the  contrary, 
— radical  as  they  were  for  the  epoch, — represented  only  a  transitory 
state,  a  moment  in  the  religious  evolution  of  the  mind. 

Channing  doubtless  proclaims  the  sovereignty  of  reason  in  the  most 
absolute  manner :  "  The  truth  is,"  said  he,  "  and  it  ought  not  to  be 
denied,  that  our  ultimate  reliance  is  and  must  be  on  our  own  reason. 
.  .  .  .  I  am  surer  that  my  rational  nature  is  from  God  than  that 
any  book  is  the  expression  of  his  will."  Would  he  have  expressed 
himself  with  so  much  assurance  if  he  had  not  possessed  the  conviction 
that  his  personal  views  on  the  pre-existence  of  Christ  and  the  validity 
of  the  Biblical  Revelation,  had  nothing  to  fear  from  free  inquiry  ? 
This  is  a  question  which  it  is  neither  possible  to  answer  nor  even  fair 
to  ask.  Channing,  like  all  the  American  Unitarians  of  the  first 
generation,  remained  faithful  to  the  theology  of  Locke,  which,  as  we 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  165 

have  seen,  sought  in  miracles  the  proof,  if  not  the  credentials,  of 
Revelation,  while  they  left  its  interpretation  and  significance  to  the 
ordinary  processes  of  reason. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  at  the  commencement  of  this  century, 
Biblical  exegesis  had  as  yet  to  be  entirely  created ;  and,  besides,  the 
first  Unitarians  of  the  New  World,  absorbed  in  their  struggle  against 
Calvinism,  had  enough  to  do  in  extirpating  the  parasitic  excrescences 
of  the  primitive  revelation.  It  was  at  the  hour  when  this  controversy 
began  to  subside,  in  consequence  of  reciprocal  weariness,  that  there 
arrived  simultaneously  from  Germany  the  first  results  of  a  religious 
criticism  henceforth  emancipated  from  dogma,  and  the  idealistic 
theories  of  the  school  of  Kant,  then  in  all  the  splendour  of  its  popu- 
larity. The  movement  of  ideas  which  this  double  leaven  excited 
among  the  Unitarians  of  the  second  generation  tended  to  nothing  less 
than  the  founding  of  a  new  religion  under  the  cover  of  Christianity. 
I  refer  to  the  doctrine  to  which  Americans  gave  the  name  of  Tran- 
scendentalism. 


CHAPTER       VIII 


THE  TRANSCENDENTAL  MOVEMENT- EMERSON  AND 

PARKER. 


Transcendentalism ;  origin  and  signification  of  the  word — German  Idealism  in  the 
United  States — Circumstances  favourable  to  the  substitution  of  a  mystic  Ration- 
alism for  the  Sensational  supernaturalism  of  the  old  Unitarian  theology — Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  "  the  prince  of  the  Transcendentalists" — His  opinions  on  the 
unity  of  Nature,  the  continuity  of  progress,  the  identity  of  substance  with  mind, 
and  of  the  Moral  Law  with  the  purpose  of  the  universe — Sensation  created  by 
his  discourse  at  the  Harvard  University  in  1838 — The  Transcendental  Club  and 
the  leaders  of  the  Transcendental  movement — Attitude  of  the  conservative  Uni- 
tarians— Theodore  Parker,  the  prophet  of  Transcendentalism — His  sermon  in 
1841,  on  the  transitory  and  the  permanent  elements  in  Christianity — His  isolation 
in  the  midst  of  the  Unitarian  Churches — Growing  success  of  his  preaching  at 
Boston — His  work  in  the  anti-slavery  agitation — His  double  method :  observation 
and  intuition — His  theology  :  the  immanence  of  God  in  Conscience  and  in 
Nature — Application  of  his  doctrine  to  morals  and  to  politics — The  golden  age 
of  Boston — The  connection  between  the  reign  of  Transcendentalism  and  the 
richest  intellectual  life  of  New  England. 


The  old  Sensational  school  made  of  the  soul  a  tabula  rasa,  a  mirror, 
limited  to  reflecting  the  impressions  transmitted  by  the  senses.  Kant 
combatted  this  negative  psychology  in  his  Critique  of  Pure  Reason 
by  showing  that  the  human  mind  possesses  an  innate  organization  of 
its  own,  independent  of  experience,  and  necessary  for  the  formation 
of  thought.  Yet,  from  what  reason  thus  apprehended,  under  the 
form  of  Transcendental  conceptions, — that  is,  above  the  sphere  of  ex- 
perience,— namely,  ideas  of  the  absolute,  the  infinite,  the  ideal,  he 
did  not  deduce,  necessarily,  the  real  existence  of  corresponding 
entities.  Fichte,  his  disciple,  advanced  farther  still  in  the  way  of 
subjective  idealism,  since  he  affirmed  our  inability  to  know  anything 
with  certainty  outside  of  our  own  mind  and  its  laws.  Jacobi,  on  the 
contrary,  and  especially  Schelling,  inferred  from  the  fact  of  our  inward 
conceptions  the  objective  reality,  as  much  of  the  spiritual  world  as  of 
the  sensible.  Later,  Schleiermacher,  placing  the  origin  of  religion  in 
the  feeling  of  our  dependence  upon  the  Absolute,  endeavoured  to 
trace  to  individual  revelation  the  dogmas  of  Christianity,  without  see- 


168  THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

ing  that  he  sapped  them  at  their  base  by  his  doctrine  of  the  direct 
communication  between  the  soul  and  God. 

After  conquering  the  university  lecture-room,  renovating  theology, 
and  illuminating  German  literature,  Transcendental  idealism  passed 
into  France,  where  Cousin  enchased  it  in  his  brilliant  mosaic,  under 
the  name  of  impersonal  reason  ;  and  into  England,  where  Coleridge 
became  its  apostle,  Carlyle  its  historian,  and  Wordsworth  its  poet. 
But,  considerable  as  was  its  action  upon  the  development  of  European 
thought  during  the  most  fruitful  and  enthusiastic  literary  period  of 
our  century,  nothing  here  is  comparable  to  the  influence  which  it 
exercised  in  New  England  in  all  the  spheres  of  activity,  intellectual, 
religious,  and  even  social. 

It  was  by  the  works  of  Coleridge  and  Carlyle  that  it  penetrated 
into  the  United  States  in  the  first-third  of  this  century.  The  interest 
which  it  excited  led  the  most  distinguished  writers  of  Boston  to  study 
German  and  French,  that  they  might  read  at  first  hand  Jacobi,  Fichte, 
Schelling,  Herder,  Schleiermacher,  and  De  Wette,  and  also  Cousin, 
Jouffroy,  and  Benjamin  Constant.  Philosophic  at  first,  the  move- 
ment was  not  tardy  in  becoming  exclusively  religious.  In  1835, 
James  Walker,  Professor  of  Ethics  in  Harvard  University,  assailed 
the  sensational  method  of  the  dominant  theology,  and  extolled  re- 
course to  a  philosophy  which  constantly  recalls  our  relations  'to  the 
spiritual  world. 

The  new  method  was  especially  attractive  to  minds  which  had 
carried  farthest  the  work  of  demolition,  undertaken  by  modern  exe- 
gesis, upon  the  dogmas  of  Christianity.  The  only  traditions  which 
the  Unitarians  had  left  as  the  basis  of  their  religious  system,  the  pre- 
existence  of  Christ  and  the  authenticity  of  miracles,  began  to  be 
shaken  by  the  incessant  progress  of  free  inquiry.  How  natural,  then, 
that  those  who  were  desirous  of  preserving  the  foundations  of  their 
faith,  in  this  general  shipwreck  of  dogmas,  should  have  welcomed 
with  eagerness  a  doctrine  which,  in  extending  to  all  men  the  privilege 
of  a  direct  communication  with  the  Divine  Being,  allowed  them  to 
reduce  to  human  proportions  the  person  of  Jesus,  without  taking  from 
him  the  prestige  of  inspiration !  How  could  they  have  been  other 
than  attracted  by  the  ingenious  hypothesis  of  a  sixth  sense,  which,  open 
to  the  spiritual  world,  rendered  useless  the  intervention  of  miracles  to 
establish  the  existence  of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul ! 


EMERSON    AND    PARKER.  169 

It  may  be  said  that  Transcendentalism  presented  at  the  same  time 
the  complement  and  the  corrective  of  the  Unitarian  reform.  This  latter 
was,  pre-eminently,  a  religion  of  the  head,  the  product  of  a  critical 
and  negative  tendency.  Its  theology,  as  far  as  it  had  any,  came  by 
the  process  of  subtraction,  or  by  taking  away  successively  from  the 
Christian  traditions  the  dogmas  condemned  by  free  scholarship. 
Transcendentalism  proceeded  by  the  way  of  clear  and  positive  affirma- 
tion. It  took  for  its  point  of  departure  the  existence  of  a  special 
faculty  which  permitted  the  human  mind  to  seize  directly  spiritual 
truths.  Regarding  as  facts  of  consciousness  the  three  great  axioms  of 
Theism, — God,  immortality,  duty, — it  placed  them  upon  founda- 
tions which  reason  itself  proclaimed  independent  of  all  experience  and 
of  all  demonstration.  Thus  entrenched  in  the  depths  of  consciousness 
and  in  the  realm  of  the  ideal,  it  easily  found  access  to  the  sources  of 
mysticism,  which,  by  a  singular  phenomenon  among  a  people  so  prac- 
tical, never  seem  exhausted  in  the  American  mind.  In  short,  by  its 
doctrine  of  impersonal  reason,  it  embraced  the  profoundly  Aryan  con- 
ception of  the  neo-Platonic  Word,  which  the  Unitarians  had  suppressed 
from  Christianity,  in  order  to  adhere  to  the  strict  Monotheism  of  the 
first  evangelists.  It  thereby  allied  itself  to  the  mystic  sects  founded 
in  Protestantism  upon  the  principle  of  interior  illumination,  except 
that  it  extended  to  all  men  the  privilege  of  inspiration,  which  these 
sects  wished  to  reserve  to  the  adepts  of  a  distinctive  faith. 

"  Transcendentalism,"  says  its  principal  historian  in  New  Zealand, 
Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham,1  "  possessed  all  the  chief  qualifications  for  a 
gospel.  Its  cardinal  facts  were  few  and  manageable.  Its  data  were 
secluded  in  the  recesses  of  consciousness,  out  of  reach  of  scientific 
investigation,  remote  from  the  gaze  of  vulgar  scepticism — esoteric, 
having  about  them  the  charm  of  a  sacred  privacy,  on  which  common 
sense  and  the  critical  understanding  might  not  intrude. 

I.  O.  B.  Frothingham,  Transcendentalism  in  New  England  a  History.  New 
York:  Putnam,  1880.  I.  Vol. — The  author  himself,  although  really  belonging  to 
a  later  generation,  took  an  active  part  in  the  religious  movement  he  has  described  ; 
but,  since  the  failure  of  the  Rationalistic  Church  which  he  had  founded  in  New 
York,  he  has  devoted  himself  to  letters,  in  which  he  occupies,  above  all  as  a  critic, 
a  distinguished  rank.  Much  was  said,  about  a  year  ago,  respecting  his  conversion 
to  Orthodoxy ;  but  he  took  care  to  deny  this  report  in  a  letter  to  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  on  the  13th  of  November,  1881,  in  which  he  stated  that,  while 
recognizing  that  his  old  opinions  did  not  embody  the  whole  truth,  he  saw  no  reason 
to  change  them. 


170  THE    TRANSCENDENTAL    MOVEMENT 

It  possessed  the  character  of  indefiniteness  and  mystery,  full  of  senti- 
ment and  suggestion,  that  fascinates  the  imagination  and  lends  itself 
so  easily  to  acts  of  contemplation  and  worship.  .  .  .  Piety  was  a 
feature  of  Transcendentalism ;  it  loved  devout  hymns,  music,  the  glow- 
ing language  of  aspiration,  the  word  of  awe  and  humility,  emblems, 
symbols,  expressions  of  inarticulate  emotion,  silence,  contemplation, 
breathings  after  communion  with  the  Infinite." 

Unitarianism,  as  a  whole,  was,  however,  far  from  casting  itself  into 
the  arms  of  German  idealism.  The  Unitarians  of  the  first  generation 
who  wished  to  adhere  to  the  positions  conquered  from  Orthodoxy, 
and,  in  general,  all  who  were  not  troubled  in  their  belief  in  the  super- 
naturalness  of  the  Bible,  regarded  the  progress  of  the  new  method 
with  more  distrust  than  enthusiasm.  Some  predicted  that  it  would 
lead  to  fatal  divisions  in  the  bosom  of  Unitarianism ;  others,  that  this 
invasion  of  idealism  would  bring,  as  usual,  a  sceptical  re-action. 
Channing  himself,  who  had  so  much  insisted  upon  the  authority,  the 
grandeur,  the  divinity  of  the  human  soul,  wrote,  nevertheless,  in  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  to  Dr.  Martineau,  that  the  Transcendentalists 
appeared  to  him  to  be  advancing  toward  the  substitution  of  individual 
inspiration  for  Christianity. 

There  was  then  in  Boston  a  young  minister  who  had  just  quitted 
his  congregation  through  a  scruple  of  conscience,  because  he  was  no 
longer  willing  to  administer  the  sacrament  of  the  communion.  This 
was  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  the  essayist,  who,  with  the  poet,  Henry 
W.  Longfellow,  held,  during  a  third  of  the  century,  the  sceptre  of 
American  literature.  In  his  first  work,  Nature,  published  in  1836,  he 
revealed  that  vigorous  idealism  which  has  caused  him  to  be  surnamed, 
in  the  United  States,  the  Prince  of  Transcendentalists.  Notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  blood  of  eight  generations  of  clergymen 
flowed  in  his  veins,  he  was  anything  but  a  theologian  and  a  contro- 
versialist. Imagination  and  feeling  were  his  leading  characteristics ; 
he  might  almost  be  called  an  illumine  of  Rationalism.  Some  of  his 
poetical  productions  and  indeed  of  his  prose  dissertations  on  the 
eternal  One,  on  the  universal  Spirit,  of  which  Nature  is  simply  the 
product  and  the  symbol,  and  on  the  ineffable  union  of  the  individual 
soul  with  the  universal  or  over-soul,  suggest  the  latest  philosophers  of 
the  Alexandrian  school  and  even  certain  mystics  of  India  :  "All  goes 
to  show,"  says  he,  "  that  the  soul  is  not  an  organ,  but  animates  and 


EMERSON   AND   PARKER.  171 

exercises  all  organs,  is  not  a  function  like  the  power  of  memory,  of 
calculation,  of  comparison,  but  uses  these  as  hands  and  feet ;  it  is  not 
a  faculty  but  a  light,  it  is  not  the  intellect  or  the  will  but  the  master 
of  the  intellect  and  the  will ;  it  is  the  back  ground  of  our  being  in 
which  they  lie,  an  immensity,  not  possessed  and  that  cannot  be 
possessed.  From  within  or  behind,  a  light  shines  through  us  on 
things  and  makes  us  aware  that  we  are  nothing,  but  the  light  is  all. 
A  man  is  the  facade  of  a  temple  wherein  all  wisdom  and  all  good 
abide." 

This  is  certainly  Pantheism,  but  a  subjective  Pantheism  which  tends 
to  absorb  God  and  nature  into  man,  rather  than  man  and  nature  into 
God.  Besides,  it  is  in  the  human  mind  that  Emerson  sees  a  solution 
of  the  problem  of  nature,  together  with  the  secret  of  history :  "  Let 
man  learn  the  revelation  of  all  nature  and  of  all  thought  to  his  heart ; 
this,  namely :  that  the  Highest  dwells  with  him,  that  the  sources  of 
nature  are  in  his  own  mind,  if  the  sentiment  of  duty  is  there."  "  This 
human  mind  wrote  history,  and  this  must  read  it.  The  Sphinx  must 
solve  her  own  riddle.     If  the  whole  of  history  is  in  one  man,  it  is  all 

to  be  explained  from  individual  experiences We  are 

always  coming  up  with  the  emphatic  facts  of  history,  in  our  private 
experience,  and  verifying  them  here.  All  history  becomes  subjective, 
in  other  words  there  is  properly  no  history  only  biography." 

It  is  from  this  respect  and  reverence  for  the  human  individuality 
that  Emerson  escapes  the  rock  upon  which  mysticism  is  ordinarily 
wrecked,  and  that  he  keeps  his  feet  on  the  earth  though  he  lifts  him- 
self up  to  the  heavens :  "  As  soon  as  every  man  is  apprised  of  the 
divine  presence  within  his  own  mind,  is  apprised  that  the  perfect  law 
of  duty  corresponds  with  the  laws  of  chemistry,  of  vegetation,  of 
astronomy,  as  face  to  face  in  a  glass;  that  the  basis  of  duty,  the 
order  of  society,  the  power  of  character,  the  wealth  of  culture,  the 
perfection  of  taste  all  draw  their  essence  from  this  moral  sentiment, 
then  we  have  a  religion  that  exalts,  that  commands  all  the  social  and 

all  the  private  action Pure  doctrine  always  bears  fruit 

in  pure  benefits.  It  is  only  by  good  works,  it  is  only  on  the  basis  of 
active  duty  that  worship  finds  its  expression." 

Another  question  in  which  he  shows  himself  to  be  entirely  a  child 
of  the  present  age,  is  his  extreme  deference  to  scientific  truth,  which 


172  THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

he  regards  as  a  revelation  of  God.     Twenty  years  before  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Origin  of  Species  he  wrote  thus  in  Nature — 

"A  subtle  chain  of  countless  rings, 
The  next  unto  the  furthest  brings. 
The  eye  reads  omens  where  it  goes, 
And  speaks  all  languages  the  rose. 
And  striving  to  be  man,  the  worm, 
Mounts  through  all  the  spires  of  form." 

This  led  Tyndall  to  say  :  "  In  him  we  have  a  poet  and  a  profoundly 
religious  man  who  is  really  and  entirely  undaunted  by  the  discoveries 
of  science,  past,  present  and  prospective.  In  his  case  poetry,  with 
the  joy  of  a  bacchanal,  takes  her  graver  brother  science  by  the  hand 
and  cheers  him  with  immortal  laughter." 

It  has  been  contended  that  in  Emerson  the  poet  obscures  the  philo- 
sopher, and  that  no  one  could  affirm  to  what  system  of  philosophy  he 
belonged.  In  truth — as  the  Rev.  Heber  Newton  showed,  shortly  after 
his  death,  in  a  funeral  oration,  which  made  a  sensation  in  New  York — 
Emerson  professed  the  philosophy  and  the  religion  of  Nature,  but  of 
a  Nature  idealized,  and  it  is  to  this  that  the  secret  of  his  influence  on 
contemporary  society  is  to  be  traced. 

Not  only  does  he  admit  the  continuity  of  the  universal  development 

as  well  as  the  unity  of  Nature,  of  which  he  makes  the  Sphinx  say, 

"  Who  telleth  one  of  my  meanings 
Is  master  of  all  that  I  am," 

but,  even  more,  passing  beyond  the  sphere  of  scientific  observation, 

he  glances  at  the  essence  of  things  as  a  spiritual  force :  "  Nature  is 

the  incarnation  of  a  word     .     .     .     the  world  is  mind  precipitated," 

and  he  proclaims  the  identity  of  this  force  with  the  moral  law  revealed 

in  the  human  conscience :  "  This  ethical  character  so  penetrates  the 

bone  and  marrow  of  Nature  as  to  seem  the  end  for  which  it  is  made." 

Moral  progress,  moreover,  is  to  him  only  a  mirror  of  universal 

progress:  "The  moral  sentiment  speaks  to  every  man  the  law  after 

which  the  universe  was  made.     We  find  parity,  identity  of  design 

through  Nature,  and  benefit  to  be  the  uniform  aim;  there  is  force 

always  at  work  to  make  the  best  better  and  the  worst  good."    Finally, 

he  considers  love  to  be  an  undeniable  attribute  of  the  Universal 

Power  : 

"  Wilt  thou  freeze  Love's  tidal  flow, 
Whose  streams  through  Nature  circling  go  ?  " 

Such  is  the  doctrine  which  shines  through  all  his  works,  but  which 


EMERSON   AND    PARKER.  173 

he  abstains  from  developing  systematically  and  from  discussing  with 
those  who  deny  it,  so  fully  does  it  embody  for  him  an  order  of  truth 
that  lies  beyond  the  range  of  controversy.  He  deemed  it  worthy, 
moreover,  of  furnishing  the  plan  of  that  harmonious  temple  to  which 
he  likened,  in  the  following  terms,  the  religion  of  the  future :  "  There 
will  be  a  new  Church,  founded  on  moral  science,  at  first  cold  and 
naked,  a  babe  in  the  manger  again,  the  algebra  and  mathematics  of 
ethical  law,  the  Church  of  men  to  come,  without  shawns  or  psaltery 
or  sackbut,  but  it  will  have  heaven  and  earth  for  its  beams  and  rafters, 
science  for  symbol  and  illustration ;  it  will  fast  enough  gather  beauty, 
music,  picture,  poetry." 

Emerson  was  at  the  beginning  of  his  renown  when,  in  1838,  he 
pronounced  before  the  Theological  School  of  Harvard  the  celebrated 
discourse  in  which  Transcendentalism  avowed  itself,  for  the  first  time, 
in  open  hostility  with  all  Christian  Churches,  not  excepting  the  Unita- 
rian. The  orator  reproached  them,  without  distinction,  with  having 
looked  for  miracles — that  is,  the  intervention  of  God — elsewhere  than 
in  the  normal  functions  of  natural  laws ;  with  having  disfigured,  by 
their  compromising  exaggerations,  the  personality  of  Jesus,  "  the  only 
soul  in  history  who  has  appreciated  the  worth  of  a  man ;"  in  short, 
with  having  neglected  the  exploration  of  the  human  soul  and  its  rela- 
tions with  the  divine  mind "  It  is  time,"  said  he,  "  that 

the  ill- suppressed  murmur  of  all  thoughtful  men  against  the  famine  of 
our  Churches  should  be  heard  through  the  sleep  of  indolence  and 
over  the  din  of  routine.  .  .  .  The  prayers  and  even  the  dogmas 
of  our  Churches  are  like  the  Zodiac  of  Denderah  and  the  astro- 
nomical monuments  of  the  Hindus,  wholly  isolated  from  anything  now 
extant  in  the  life  and  business  of  the  people.  .  .  .  With  whatever 
exceptions,  tradition  characterizes  the  preaching  of  this  country;  it 
comes  out  of  the  memory  and  not  out  of  the  soul." 

The  remedy  for  these  defects  was  "  first,  soul,  and  second,  soul,  and 
evermore  soul." — "I  look  for  the  teacher,"  added  he,  "that  shall  see 
the  world  to  be  the  mirror  of  the  soul,  shall  see  the  identity  of  the 
Law  of  Gravitation  with  purity  of  heart,  and  shall  show  that  the 
Ought,  that  Duty,  is  one  thing  with  Science,  with  Beauty  and  with 

Joy." 

This  appeal  was  understood  by  all  who  were  affected  by  the  ideal- 
istic ferment.     They  soon  had  their  centre  of  propagandism,  the  Tran- 


17-i  THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

scendental  Club,  and  their  organ,  The  Dial.  In  the  first  ranks  of  the 
young  phalanx  was  seen  another  mystic,  Bronson  Alcott,  a  fervent 
admirer  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  direct 
ancestors  of  Kant  and  of  the  whole  Transcendental  school ;  George 
Ripley  and  James  Freeman  Clarke,  who  had  been  the  first  to  carry 
into  the  pulpit  the  teachings  of  German  idealism ;  Samuel  Longfellow, 
who,  without  attaining  to  the  renown  of  his  brother,  has  a  collection 
of  hymns  and  of  poetry  highly  esteemed  by  his  compatriots ;  Orestes 
Brownson,  an  ardent  propagandist,  but  of  an  unstable  mind,  who, 
at  first  a  minister  of  a  Presbyterian  congregation,  passed  over  to 
Rationalism,  then  to  Universalism,  and  who,  not  content  with  pur- 
suing his  transformations  into  the  most  extreme  Transcendentalism, 
finished  by  seeking  mental  repose  in  the  bosom  of  the  Romish  Church ; 
William  Henry  Channing,  a  nephew  of  the  founder  of  Unitarianism, 
who  became  a  missionary  of  the  new  gospel ;  the  future  colonel  of  a 
national  negro  regiment  in  the  War  of  the  Secession,  T.  W.  Higginson, 
who  represented  the  practical  tendencies  of  the  movement,  as  Samuel 
Johnson  personified  its  extreme  individualism ;  and,  finally,  C.  A. 
Bartol,  W.  H.  Furness,  John  Weiss,  John  Pierpont,  Professor  Francis, 
1  and,  above  all,  Theodore  Parker,  the  apostle  and  prophet  of  Tran- 
scendentalism. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  conservative  section  of  Unitarianism  had 
taken  the  alarm ;  and  there  were  Unitarians  who  questioned  whether 
Emerson  ought  still  to  be  regarded  as  a  Christian,  precisely  as  twenty 
years  before  the  question  had  been  agitated  whether  they  themselves 
belonged  to  Christianity  or  to  "  the  religion  of  Boston."  It  was  worse 
still  when,  in  1S41,  Theodore  Parker,  at  an  ordination  in  the  Unitarian 
church  of  South  Boston,  delivered  his  sermon  upon  "  The  Transient 
and  the  Permanent  Elements  in  Christianity."  The  permanent  ele- 
ment was  the  great  religious  and  moral  virtues  which  Jesus,  "  that 
perfect  type  of  the  religious  man,"  had  manifested  in  himself,  and  had 
vivified  in  his  love  of  humanity.  The  transient  element  was  the  rites 
and  doctrines  of  Christianity7,  comprising  the  belief  that  the  Bible 
contained  a  special  revelation,  and  that  the  nature  of  Christ  was 
unique  in  history. 

According  to  Mr.  W.  C.  Gannett,  this  discourse  made  as  much 
noise  as  the  famous  sermon  of  Dr.  Channing,  preached  at  Baltimore 
twenty-two  years  before.     This  time,  it  was  no  longer  a  question 


EMERSON   AND    PARKER.  175 

whether  the  author  was  a  Christian :  he  was  treated  as  an  infidel,  a 
blasphemer,  an  atheist.  The  Boston  Association  of  Ministers  debated 
whether  they  should  not  expel  him  from  their  ranks.  As  their  rules 
were  opposed  to  this,  they  took  the  official  step  of  requesting  him  to 
resign.  "  I  am  sorry  for  the  Association,"  he  answered,  "  but  I  can- 
not help  it.  I  cannot  take  upon  my  shoulders  the  onus  da?nnandi. 
This  would  be  to  avow  that  there  is  good  cause  for  my  withdrawal. 
.  .  .  .  They  have,  in  a  measure,  identified  me  with  freedom  in 
religious  matters." 

Certain  members  thought  of  a  dissolution  of  the  society,  which 
would  have  allowed  them  to  reorganize  without  the  author  of  all  this 
scandal.  But  the  voice  of  moderation  prevailed, — thanks  to  the 
sympathy,  more  or  less  acknowledged,  felt  for  Parker  among  the 
younger  ministers ;  and  perhaps  also  to  the  intervention  of  Dr.  Ezra 
Stiles  Gannett,  who,  although  belonging  to  the  conservative  party,  had 
a  high  esteem  for  the  frank  and  loyal  character  of  his  fellow-minister. 
"  It  is  not  our  way,"  he  reminded  his  brethren,  "  to  pass  ecclesiastical 
censure.  We  are  willing — at  least  we  have  said  we  were  willing — to 
take  the  principle  of  free  inquiry,  with  all  its  consequences."  The 
Association,  therefore,  passed  no  resolution  again!  the  audacious  re- 
former ;  but  all  the  pulpits  in  Boston  were  henceforth  closed  against 
him.  This  situation  continued  until  1845.  The  adherents  of  the 
proscribed  man  then  had  a  meeting,  at  which  they  resolved  that 
"  Theodore  Parker  shall  have  a  chance  to  be  heard  in  Boston."  They 
hired  for  him  the  Melodeon,  a  concert  hall,  in  the  hope  that  there 
would  soon  be  gathered  the  elements  of  a  congregation.  The  success 
of  the  movement  surpassed  all  expectation,  and  the  lapse  of  years 
merely  served  to  increase  it.  In  1S52,  Parker  had  to  be  installed  in  a 
larger  edifice  where,  until  1S59,  he  announced  Sunday  after  Sunday, 
the  good  news  of  Transcendentalism  before  thousands  of  auditors. 
His  activity  during  this  period,  was  truly  immense : — When  he  could 
write  and  preach  but  one  sermon  a  week,  says  one  of  his  biographers, 
he  fancied  he  had  done  nothing,  and  when  he  gave  only  twenty-four 
lectures  a  year  he  found  that  but  a  small  matter.  He  was  equally  at 
home  in  all  subjects,  and  whether  it  was  a  question  of  religion  or 
politics,  of  the  mischievous  tendencies  of  public  opinion  or  the  evil 
of  private  scandal,  nothing  intimidated  him  when  his  conscience  com- 
manded  him   to   speak.      In  this   respect,    M.    Albert   Reville   has 


176  THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

characterized  him  justly  in  speaking  of  him  as  a  "  prophet"  in  the  old 
Biblical  sense  of  the  word. 

One  day  as  he  was  denouncing,  at  a  public  meeting,  the  injustice  of 
the  war  which  the  United  States  had  declared  against  Mexico,  some 
armed  volunteers  who  were  in  the  room  tried  to  silence  him  by  the 
threat  of  death.  You  wish  to  kill  me,  he  cried.  Well,  I  declare  that 
in  such  case  I  will  return  alone  and  unarmed,  and  not  one  of  you  will 
be  able  to  touch  a  hair  of  my  head.  Thus  he  went  on  with  his 
speech,  and  no  one  dared  to  stop  him. 

Slavery  had  not  a  more  determined  adversary,  and  he  played  a  pre- 
ponderating part  in  the  abolitionist  movement,  whose  final  triumph  he 
predicted.  When  the  Party  in  favour  of  slavery  were  in  power  and 
passed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  in  1851,  which  enacted  that  fugitive 
slaves  should  be  everywhere  arrested,  Parker  declared  that  he  would 
open  his  house  to  them,  and  that  he  would  defend  them  even  with 
arms  in  his  hand.  He  kept  his  word,  and,  when  reproached  in  con- 
sequence, for  having  put  himself  above  the  laws,  he  stated,  in  one  of 
his  sermons,  that,  on  a  certain  occasion  in  Palestine,  a  no  less  legal 
decree  of  the  High  Priest,  had  ordered  the  pursuit  and  arrest  of  a 
certain  stirrer  up  of  sedition,  named  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  that 
Judas  Iscariot  was  the  only  man  who  had  had  the  courage  to  fulfil 
his  constitutional  obligation.  And  yet,  added  he,  Judas  Iscariot  has 
anything  but  a  good  reputation  in  the  Christian  world.  He  is  called 
the  Son  of  Perdition.  His  conduct  is  declared  to  be  criminal,  and 
even  the  New  Testament  assumes  that  the  Devil  must  have  entered 
into  him  to  inspire  his  odious  crime.  Ah  !  continued  he,  what  error 
has  blinded  us  all !  Judas  Iscariot  a  traitor !  Indeed !  Why  he 
simply  conquered  his  prejudices.  He  merely  knew  how  to  perform  a 
disagreeable  duty.  He  maintained  the  law  and  the  Constitution. 
He  did  all  in  his  power  to  save  the  Union.  Judas  thou  art  a  saint : 
the  law  of  God  never  commands  us  to  disobey  human  laws.  "  Saticte 
Iscariote,  ora  pro  nobis."  This  sermon,  which  caused  an  immense 
stir,  brought  upon  its  author  a  criminal  prosecution.  But  it  merely 
ended  in  his  triumphant  acquittal,  and  he  only  continued  his  pro- 
pagandism  with  increased  energy. 

We  may  regard  Parker  as  the  clearest  and  most  logical  interpreter 
of  Transcendental  principles.  "  A  Transcendental  religion  needs," 
he   said,    "  a   Transcendental    theology."      His    posthumous    essay, 


EMERSON   AND   PARKER.  177 

Transcendentalism,  and  also  his  first  work,  A  Discourse  on  Matters 
Perlaini?ig  to  Religion,  admirably  sum  up  the  doctrines  which  inspired 
his  whole  life,  and  which  he  believed  destined  to  become  the  religion 
of  enlightened  minds  during  the  next  thousand  years.  There  must 
not  be  sought  in  them  a  rigorous  analysis  of  the  psychological  phe- 
nomena which  serve  as  the  basis  of  the  philosophy  of  intuition. 
Parker  had  adopted  as  a  starting-point  the  method  of  the  followers 
of  Kant.  Henceforth,  therefore,  he  declines  to  discuss  its  underlying 
principles,  and  contents  himself  with  the  application  of  it,  to  the  search 
for  and  the  development  of  religious  truth.  To  be  sure,  he  rejects 
neither  the  control  nor  the  support  of  external  observation ;  but  it  is 
above  all  to  internal  phenomena  that  he  turns  in  order  to  obtain 
decisive  evidence  for  the  existence  of  God  and  the  doctrine  of 
immortality. 

He  begins  by  showing  that  there  is  in  human  nature  a  religious 
faculty  or  tendency  side-by-side  with  our  moral,  emotional,  and  intel- 
lectual faculties.  This  faculty  furnishes  us  with  the  first  conception 
of  the  Infinite  and  the  Absolute,  just  as  our  senses  afford  us  a  know- 
ledge of  the  qualities  of  matter.  This  primordial  notion,  fact  of 
consciousness,  or  necessary  truth,  is  afterwards  laid  hold  of  by  Reason, 
which  deduces  from  it  the  idea  of  a  God  infinite  in  power,  in  intelli- 
gence, in  justice  and  in  love.  It  is  no  longer  the  God  of  Deism  or 
Sensationalism,  external  to  the  world  and  of  doubtful  utility.  But 
rather  it  is  a  God  universally  and  eternally  active,  who  is  immanent 
alike  in  mind  and  in  matter.  The  laws  of  nature  are  his  modes  of 
action  and  miracles  are  therefore  impossible,  since  they  would  form  a 
violation  of  the  divine  laws.  But  God  is  not  only  immanent,  he  is 
also  transcendent,  that  is,  without  limitations  of  any  kind,  infinite  and 
absolute.  The  universe,  as  the  manifestation  of  his  activity,  partici- 
pates in  his  perfection,  but  only  in  relation  to  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  created.  As  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  best  evidence 
of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  longing  for  continued  existence  which  is 
in  the  heart  of  man. 

Since  God  is  immanent  in  human  nature,  "  it  follows  that  man  is 
capable  of  inspiration  from  God,  communion  with  God,  not  in  raptures, 
not  by  miracles,  but  by  the  sober  use  of  all  his  faculties,  moral,  intel- 
lectual, affectionate,  religious.  .  .  In  this  way  Transcendentalism 
can  legitimate  the  highest  inspiration  and  explain  the  genesis  of  God's 


178  THE  TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

noblest  son,  not  as  monstrous,  but  natural.  In  religion  as  in  all  things 
else  there  has  been  a  progressive  development  of  mankind.  The 
world  is  a  school;  prophets,  saints,  saviours,  men  more  eminently 
gifted  and  faithful,  and  so  most  eminently  inspired— they  are  the 
schoolmasters  to  lead  men  up  to  God." 

Here  are  the  terms  in  which  Parker  shows  that  science  being  a  form 
of  religion  cannot  possibly  be  in  antagonism  to  it : — 

"  Men  of  science,  as  a  class,  do  not  war  on  the  truths,  the  good- 
ness and  the  piety  that  are  taught  as  religion,  only  on  the  errors,  the 
evil,  the  impiety  which  bear  its  name.  Science  is  the  natural  ally  of 
religion.  Shall  we  try  and  separate  what  God  has  joined  ?  We  injure 
both  by  the  attempt.  The  philosophers  of  this  age  have  a  profound 
love  of  truth,  and  show  great  industry  and  boldness  in  search  thereof. 
In  the  name  of  truth  they  pluck  down  the  strongholds  of  error,  vener- 
able and  old.  All  the  attacks  made  on  religion  itself  by  men  of 
science  from  Celsus  to  Feuerbach,  have  not  done  so  much  to  bring 
religion  into  contempt  as  a  single  persecution  for  witchcraft,  or  a 

Bartholomew  massacre  made  in  the  name  of  God."1 

I.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  Parker  is  not  better  known  here  in  England. 
Many  of  those  who  are  familiar  with  his  name  look  upon  him  mainly  as  an  advanced 
religious  thinker,  who  was  more  at  home  in  opposing  the  claims  of  orthodoxy  than 
in  teaching  spiritual  religion.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  spoke  at  times  with  the 
voice  of  an  inspired  poet,  whose  words  glowed  with  holy  fire.  Take  in  illustration 
of  this,  the  following  fine  passage  on  the  Joy  of  Faith,  from  his  Discourse  on  Matters 
Pertaining  to  Religion,  where  he  says—"  No  doubt  there  is  joy  in  the  success  of 
earthly  schemes.  There  is  joy  to  the  miser  as  he  satiates  his  prurient  palm  with 
gold  :  there  is  joy  to  the  fool  of  fortune  when  his  gaming  brings  a  prize.  But  what 
is  it?  His  request  is  granted,  but  leanness  enters  his  soul.  There  is  delight  in 
feasting  on  the  bounties  of  Earth,  the  garment  in  which  God  veils  the  brightness  of 
his  face  ;  in  being  filled  with  the  fragrant  loveliness  of  flowers ;  the  song  of  birds  ; 
the  hum  of  bees ;  the  sounds  of  ocean ;  the  rustle  of  the  summer  wind,  heard  at 
evening  in  the  pine  tops;  in  the  cool  running  brooks  ;  in  the  majestic  sweep  of  un- 
dulating hills  ;  the  grandeur  of  untamed  forests ;  the  majesty  of  the  mountain  ;  in 
the  morning's  virgin  beauty  ;  in  the  maternal  grace  of  evening,  and  the  sublime  and 
mystic  pomp  of  night.     Nature's  silent  sympathy— how  beautiful  it  is ! 

"There  is  joy,  no  doubt  there  is  joy,  to  the  mind  of  Genius,  when  thought 
bursts  on  him  as  the  tropic  sun  rending  a  cloud  ;  when  long  trains  of  ideas  sweep 
through  his  soul,  like  constellated  orbs  before  an  angel's  eye ;  when  sublime  thoughts 
and  burning  words  rush  to  the  heart ;  when  Nature  unveils  her  secret  truth,  and 
some  great  Law  breaks,  all  at  once,  upon  a  Newton's  mind,  and  chaos  ends  in 
light ;  when  the  hour  of  his  inspiration  and  the  joy  of  his  genius  is  on  him,  'tis 
then  'that  this  child  of  heaven  feels  a  God-like  delight.     'Tis  sympathy  with  Truth. 

"  There  is  a  higher  and  more  tranquil  bliss  when  heart  communes  with  heart ; 
when  two  souls  unite  in  one,  like  mingling  dew-drops  on  a  rose,  that  scarcely  touch 
the  flower,  but  mirror  the  heavens  in  their  little  orbs ;  when  perfect  love  transforms 


EMERSON   AND   PARKER.  179 

It  is  in  the  individual  conscience  that  the  Transcendentalists  ex- 
clusively sought  the  basis  and  sanction  of  morality.  Some  confined 
themselves  to  seeing  in  conscience  a  perfectible  organ,  demanding 
rational  cultivation  in  order  to  reach  its  full  development.  But  the 
majority  held  that  man  possesses  within  himself  an  absolute  criterion 
of  good  and  evil.     Such,  too,  was  the  opinion  of  Parker — 

"  While  experience  shows  what  has  been  or  is,  conscience  shows 
what  should  be  and  shall.  Transcendental  ethics  look  not  at  the 
consequences  of  virtue  in  this  life  or  in  the  next  as  motive,  therefore, 
to  lead  men  to  virtue.  That  is  itself  a  good,  an  absolute  good — to  be 
loved  not  for  what  it  brings,  but  is." 

Applied  to  politics,  the  Transcendental  method  led  to  the  search 
for  rules  of  government  in  conscience  :  "  It  does  not  so  much  quote 
precedents,  contingent  facts  of  experience  as  ideas,  necessary  facts  of 
consciousness;  it  only  quotes  the  precedent  to  obtain  or  illustrate  the 
idea.  .  .  .  Conscience,  in  politics  and  in  ethics,  transcends  expe- 
rience, and,  a  priori,  tells  us  of  the  just,  the  right,  the  good,  the  fair; 
not  the  relatively  right  alone,  but  the  absolute  right  also."     In  his 

two  souls,  either  man's  or  woman's,  each  to  the  other's  image ;  when  one  heart 
beats  in  two  bosoms ;  one  spirit  speaks  with  a  divided  tongue  ;  when  the  same  soul 
is  eloquent  in  mutual  eyes — there  is  a  rapture  deep,  serene,  heart-felt,  and  abiding 
in  this  mysterious  fellow-feeling  with  a  congenial  soul,  which  puts  to  shame  the  cold 
sympathy  of  Nature,  and  the  ecstatic  but  short-lived  bliss  of  Genius  in  his  high 
and  burning  hour. 

1 '  But  the  welfare  of  Religion  is  more  than  each  or  all  of  these.  The  glad  re- 
liance that  comes  upon  the  man ;  the  sense  of  trust ;  a  rest  with  God ;  the  soul's 
exceeding  peace  ;  the  universal  harmony  ;  the  infinite  within  ;  sympathy  with  the 
Soul  of  All — is  bliss  that  words  cannot  pourtray.  He  only  knows,  who  feels.  The 
speech  of  a  prophet  cannot  tell  the  tale.  No  :  not  if  a  seraph  touched  his  lips  with 
fire.  In  the  high  hour  of  religious  visitation  from  the  living  God,  there  seems  to 
be  no  separate  thought;  the  tide  of  universal  life  sets  through  the  soul.  The  thought 
of  self  is  gone.  It  is  a  little  accident  to  be  a  king  or  a  clown,  a  parent  or  a  child. 
Man  is  at  one  with  God,  and  He  is  All  in  All.  Neither  the  loveliness  of  Nature, 
neither  the  joy  of  Genius,  nor  the  sweet  breathing  of  congenial  hearts,  that  make 
delicious  music  as  they  beat — neither  one  nor  all  of  these  can  equal  the  joy  of  the 
religious  soul  that  is  at  one  with  God,  so  full  of  peace  that  prayer  is  needless. 
Nature  undergoes  a  new  transformation. — A  story  tells  that  when  the  rising  sun  fell 
on  Memnon's  statue,  it  wakened  music  in  that  breast  of  stone.  Religion  does  the 
same  with  Nature.  From  the  shining  snake  to  the  waterfall,  it  is  all  eloquent  of 
God.  As  to  John  in  the  Apocalypse,  there  stands  an  angel  in  the  sun ;  the  seraphim 
hang  over  every  flower ;  God  speaks  in  each  little  grass  that  fringes  a  mountain 
rock.  Then  even  Genius  is  wedded  to  greater  bliss.  His  thoughts  shine  more 
brilliant  when  set  in  the  light  of  Religion.  Friendship  and  love  it  renders  infinite. 
This  is  the  joy  Religion  gives;  its  perennial  rest;  its  everlasting  life." — Translator. 


180  THE   TRANSCENDENTAL   MOVEMENT 

respect,  indeed,  for  the  claims  of  the  right,  revealed  by  intuition, 
Parker  goes  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  no  one  owes  obedience  to  a 
law  which  clashes  with  the  requirements  of  absolute  morality  and 
right.  'I  By  birth,"  says  he,  "  man  is  a  citizen  of  the  universe,  subject 
to  God.  No  oath  of  allegiance,  no  king,  no  parliament,  no  congress, 
no  people  can  absolve  him  from  his  natural  fealty  thereto  and  alienate 
a  man  born  to  the  rights,  born  to  the  duties  of  a  citizen  of  God's 
universe.     Over  all  human  law,  God  alone  has  eminent  domain." 

Parker  does  not  fail  to  show  the  Transcendental  character  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  which  founded  a  Republican  Govern- 
ment in  the  United  States,  or,  to  employ  his  happy  definition,  "  the 
government  of  all,  for  all,  and  by  all."  In  the  same  way  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  recognize  the  idealistic  character  of  the  French  Revolution: 

"  In  France  men  have  an  idea  yet  more  Transcendental :  to  the 
intellectual  idea  of  liberty  and  the  moral  idea  of  equality,  they  add 
the  religious  idea  of  fraternity,  and  so  put  politics  and  all  legislation 
on  a  basis,  divine  and  incontestable  as  the  truths  of  mathematics. 
They  say  that  rights  and  duties  are  before  all  human  laws.  America 
says  :  '  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  above  the  President, 
the  Supreme  Court  above  Congress.'  France  says :  '  The  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Universe  is  above  the  Constitution  of  France.'  Forty 
million  people  say  that.  It  transcends  experience ;  it  is  the  grandest 
thing  a  nation  ever  said  in  history." 

It  is  not  customary  to  regard  the  French  Revolution  as  the  realiza- 
tion of  a  religious  idea ;  but  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  Parker's 
views,  for  those  who  know  what  he  understood  by  religion. 

His  preaching,  which  extends  from  1841  to  1859,  corresponds  to 
the  principal  development  of  Transcendentalism.  It  was  equally  the 
golden  age  of  Boston,  and  it  may  be  added  of  American  literature. 
The  middle  of  this  century  has  seen,  indeed,  within  the  narrow  terri- 
tory of  Massachusetts,  one  of  those  marvellous  out-blossomings  which 
are  rarely  reproduced  in  the  moral  culture  of  a  people.  Channing 
died  in  1842  ;  but  it  may  be  said  that  Parker  worthily  replaced  him  in 
the  vanguard  of  religious  Rationalism.  By  the  side  of  Emerson,  who 
was  equally  pre-eminent  as  philosopher  and  poet,  Bancroft  carried  the 
principles  of  Transcendentalism  into  history ;  Sumner,  into  inter- 
national law ;  Alcott,  into  pedagogy  ;  Whittier,  into  poetry ;  Margaret 
Fuller,  into  criticism ;  Oliver  Wendall  Holmes  revealed  himself  as  a 


EMERSON   AND   PARKER.  181 

humourist ;  Prescott  published  his  History  of  the  Spanish  Conquest  of 
Mexico  ;  Hawthorne  put  into  romance  his  power  of  psychological  an- 
alysis; H.  W.  Longfellow  attained  the  meridian  of  his  glory;  and  finally, 
Massachusetts  furnished  for  the  National  Senate,  Daniel  Webster,  the 
ablest  orator  the  United  States  has  produced.  I  merely  cite  those 
names  whose  echo  has  reached  Europe.  But  by  the  side  of  these 
illustrious  leaders,  a  whole  army  of  writers,  lecturers  and  orators  did 
their  part  either  in  the  literary  and  philosophical  publications  which 
multiplied  in  Boston,  or  in  the  different  associations  which  were 
organized  for  the  promotion  of  temperance,  for  the  emancipation  of 
woman,  for  the  instruction  of  the  people,  for  the  suppression  of  war, 
for  prison  reform,  and,  above  all,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  discover  the  influence  of  Transcendentalism  in 
these  numerous  "agitations;"  not  only  because  the  exponents  of  this 
philosophy  were  found  in  the  first  rank,  but  also  because  these  move- 
ments were  the  direct  and  logical  consequence  of  a  doctrine  attribut- 
ing to  every  human  being  the  same  faculties  and  the  same  rights.  To 
this  influence,  moreover,  belong  other  more  or  less  successful  experi- 
ments, which  aimed  at  radically  reforming  the  principles  of  social 
organization.  At  one  time  it  was  George  Ripley,  who  spent  his  for- 
tune in  organizing  a  free  community  upon  the  principle  of  co- 
operation ;  at  another,  it  was  A.  B.  Alcott,  who,  claiming  the  right  to 
renounce  the  burdens  as  well  as  the  advantages  of  actual  society, 
allowed  himself  to  be  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  his  taxes.  This 
fever  of  reform  was  not  confined  to  Rationalism.  Revivals,  exciting 
even  to  delirium  the  fervour  of  the  various  sects,  passed  like  a  billow 
over  the  whole  of  Protestant  America,  and  New  England  furnished 
its  quota  to  the  eccentricities  of  Spiritualism  and  "free  love." 

Yet  what  gives  to  this  period  a  character  very  rare  in  times  of 
religious  and  social  fermentation,  is  that  laxness  of  morals  did  not 
coincide  with  excessive  mental  excitement.  Calvinism,  in  losing  its 
dogmatic  authority,  had  left  with  the  people  its  strong  moral  discipline. 
Unitarianism  had  introduced  free  inquiry  into  matters  of  belief,  and 
Transcendentalism  had  limited  itself  to  adding  thereto  an  enthusiasm 
for  noble  ideas. 


CHAPTER     IX, 


FREE  RELIGION  AND  THE  RELIGION  OF  ETHICS. 


Death  of  Parker ;  his  last  significant  words — Decline  of  Transcendentalism  in  its 
struggle  with  the  New  Scientific  Philosophy — The  two  schools  of  Unitarianism 
in  1864 — Establishment  of  the  National  Unitarian  Conference — Mr.  Francis  E. 
Adams  and  "  the  battle  of  Syracuse" — Formation  of  the  Free  Religious  Associ- 
ation in  1867 — Principles  and  objects  of  the  Free  Religious  Movement — Congre- 
gations which  have  adopted  its  programme  at  Dorchester,  Providence,  Florence, 
&c. — The  first  congregation  of  New  Bedford — The  Religion  of  Ethics — Mr. 
Felix  Adler — 'The  Philosophy  of  the  categorical  imperative— Distinction  between 
Theism  and  its  doctrinal  basis — The  Religion  of  Duty — The  Society  for  Ethical 
Culture  at  New  York  and  at  Chicago — Its  philanthropical  works — Recent  mutual 
approach  of  Unitarianism  and  Free  Religion — Rejection  of  every  obligatory 
Credo  by  the  National  Unitarian  Conference — Emancipation  of  the  Unitarian 
Churches  in  the  West — Free  Religion  among  the  Progressive  Quakers  and 
Spiritualists — The  Freie- Religiose- Gemeinde — Reformed  Judaism  in  America — 
Increasing  Practical  Character  of  religion  in  the  United  States — Progressive 
tendencies  among  the  Episcopalians,  the  Methodists,  the  Baptists,  the  Presbyter- 
ians, the  Congregationalists,  &c. — The  Rev.  H.  Ward  Beecher  and  the  Brooklyn 
Association  of  Congregational  Ministers — The  Catholics  of  the  United  States. 

Parker  died  in  Italy,  May  10,  i860,  on  the  eve  of  that  War  of 
Secession  which  he  had  perhaps  hastened  by  the  energy  of  his  denun- 
ciations against  slavery.  It  is  related  that,  at  the  moment  of  dying, 
he  murmured :  "  There  are  two  Theodore  Parkers  now.  One  is 
dying  here  in  Italy :  the  other  I  have  planted  in  America.  He  will 
live  there,  and  finish  my  work."  The  prediction  of  the  dying  man  is 
realized,  but  perhaps  not  in  the  sense  he  attached  to  it.  Parker  lives 
more  than  ever  in  the  United  States,  through  the  power  exercised 
over  imagination  and  character  by  the  example  of  his  inflexible  fidelity 
to  conviction,  of  his  passionate  love  for  truth  and  justice,  and  of  his 
unshaken  faith  in  the  reconciliation  of  religion  and  progress.  But,  as 
to  his  favourite  doctrine, — not  admitting,  with  certain  of  his  most 
recent  biographers,  that  he  would  to-day  with  the  same  ardour  extol 
the  exclusive  use  of  the  experimental  method, — it  must  be  recognized 
that  the  philosophy  of  intuition  has  not  answered  the  highest  expec- 
tations of  its  prophet. 

The  emancipation  of  the  slaves  was  the  great  triumph  of  Tran- 
scendentalism, but  it  was  also  the  beginning  of  its  decline.  The 
movement  owed  a  great  part  of  its  popularity  to  the  indifference 


184  FREE    RELIGION    AND    THE    RELIGION    OF    ETHICS. 

which  almost  all  the  established  churches  had  shown  in  opposing 
the  scourge  of  slavery.  When  this  odious  institution  was  consumed 
in  the  flames  of  civil  war,  Transcendentalism  lost  its  principal  motive 
power  over  one  portion  of  its  adherents.  On  the  other  hand,  indi- 
vidualism, which  was  at  the  bottom  of  its  aspirations,  was  always  a 
serious  obstacle  to  its  efforts  at  propagandism  and  to  the  grouping  of 
its  forces.  Its  essential  aim,  according  to  an  expression  of  Samuel 
Johnson,  was  to  lead  each  individual  to  become  a  church  by  himself, 
— which  was  to  condemn  the  very  principle  of  all  permanent  organi- 
zation upon  religious  grounds. 

The  majority  of  its  interpreters  did  not  break  away  completely  from 
Unitarianism,  which  had  served  as  a  cradle  to  the  Transcendental 
doctrine;  .and,  of  the  independent  congregations  which  some  of 
them  endeavoured  to  establish  in  imitation  of  Parker,  few  had  a 
long  duration.  Indeed,  Transcendentalism  represented  a  reaction 
against  the  exaggerations  of  the  Sensational  method  of  philosophy ; 
and,  like  all  reactions,  it  went  beyond  its  mark.  Not  content  with 
affirming  the  importance  of  psychology,  the  necessity  of  recurring  to 
internal  observation  to  explain  the  origin  of  our  knowledge,  the  apti- 
tude of  the  mind  to  conceive  certain  notions  which  cannot  be  the 
exclusive  product  of  sensible  experience,  the  existence  of  moral  liberty, 
and  the  imperative  character  of  duty,  it  professed  to  find  in  the  human 
soul  a  complete  and  infallible  perception  of  religious  and  moral  truth. 

This  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  ah  aggressive  return  of  Sensa- 
tionalism, at  the  time  when  this  philosophy,  strengthened  by  the 
prodigious  discoveries  made  by  the  natural  sciences,  claimed  to  furnish 
the  synthesis  of  the  universe.  The  weapon  which  had  assured  the 
victory  to  the  school  of  Kant  over  the  partisans  of  Locke  was  the 
verification  in  the  human  mind  of  ideas  which  are  not  introduced 
there  by  experience.  The  neo-Sensationalism  of  our  epoch  has  dis- 
placed the  ground  of  controversy,  by  explaining  the  presence  of  notions 
a  priori  in  the  individual  by  hereditary  transmission  of  accumulated 
experiences  in  the  past  of  the  race,  and  under  this  rejuvenated  form 
it  spread  so  much  the  more  rapidly  in  the  United  States,  because  it 
was  directly  introduced  there  in  the  works  of  the  scientific  school  at 
present  predominant  in  England. 

It  will  be  clear,  however,  that  this  return  blow  of  contemporary 
Sensationalism,   though  calculated  to  weaken  the  authority  of  the 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION    OF    ETHICS.  185 

Transcendentalists  in  the  bosom  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  could 
hardly  profit  the  partizans  of  the  Sensational  theology  of  Locke  and 
Priestley.  The  Transcendentalists  were  still  attached  in  a  certain  de- 
gree to  the  Christian  tradition.  Emerson,  whose  Christianity  was 
contested  by  the  conservatives,  made  of  Jesus  the  principal  educator 
of  humanity;  and  Parker,  who  was  treated  as  an  atheist,  identified 
the  moral  teaching  of  Christ  with  absolute  religion.  The  new  school, 
on  the  contrary,  pursuing  to  the  end  its  work  of  critical  destruction, 
has  stripped  of  his  aureole  the  founder  of  Christianity,  whom  it  places 
on  a  footing  of  equality  with  Buddha,  Zoroaster,  Moses,  and  Moham- 
med. At  the  end  of  the  civil  war,  therefore,  Unitarianism  found 
itself  more  than  ever  divided  into  two  factions  :  on  the  left,  the 
Liberals  who  began  to  accept  the  name  of  Radicals ;  on  the  right,  the 
Conservatives  of  the  old  school  (old-fashioned  Unitarians).  These, 
perhaps,  did  not  insist  with  so  much  energy  as  formerly  upon  the 
Socinian  theories  of  the  pre-existence  of  Christ ;  but  they  continued 
to  make  belief  in  the  authenticity  of  Revelation  the  corner-stone  of 
Christianity.  The  former,  on  the  contrary,  maintained  that  difference 
of  opinion  upon  the  infallibility  and  even  upon  the  moral  value  of  the 
Bible  was  not  an  obstacle  to  religious  fraternity,  and  that  the  essence 
of  Christianity  was  the  practice  of  Christian  virtues. 

On  this  last  ground,  indeed,  agreement  was  easy,  and  there  was  an 
equal  amount  of  enthusiasm  in  the  two  parties,  when,  after  the  Civil 
War,  in  1864,  Dr.  Bellows  proposed  to  unite  the  delegates  from  all 
the  Unitarian  Churches  in  a  permanent  confederation,  in  order  to  give 
more  unity  to  their  works  of  charity,  of  instruction,  and  of  prop- 
agandism.  The  provisional  assembly,  composed  of  three  delegates 
from  each  church  and  each  local  association,  met  at  New  York  the 
first  day  of  April,  1865.  But  differences  appeared  as  soon  as  they 
came  to  settle  the  principles  and  even  the  title  of  the  new  association. 
Finally,  after  rejecting  a  long  profession  of  faith  drawn  up  in  the  name 
of  the  extreme  right  wing  by  Mr.  A.  Low,  and  adopting  a  declaration 
stating  that  the  decisions  of  the  majority  .should  not  be  binding  upon 
the  minority,  the  delegates  voted,  perhaps  in  the  spirit  of  compromise, 
a  preamble  expressing  the  "obligation  of  all  the  disciples  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  prove  their  faith  by  self-denial,  and  by  the  devotion  of 
their  lives  and  possessions  to  the  service  of  God  and  the  building  up 
of  the  kingdom  of  his  Son."     This  phraseology  gave  umbrage  to  the 


186  FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

Radicals,  who  saw  in  it  a  declaration  of  allegiance  to  Christ ;  and,  in 
the  following  meeting,  which  opened  at  Syracuse,  Oct.  10,  1866,  one 
of  their  most  distinguished  representatives,  Mr.  Francis  Ellingwood 
Abbot,  proposed  to  substitute  for  this  preamble  a  declaration  that 
"  the  object  of  Christianity  is  the  universal  diffusion  of  love,  righteous- 
ness, and  truth ;  that  perfect  freedom  of  thought  is  the  right  and  the 
duty  of  every  human  being;"  and  that  the  basis  of  religious  organ- 
ization should  be  "  unity  of  spirit  rather  than  uniformity  of  belief." 
At  the  same  time,  Mr.  Abbot  proposed  to  substitute  the  words  "  In- 
dependent Churches"  for  "Christian  Churches,"  which  figured  in  the 
title  of  the  Conference.1 

Perhaps,  in  the  preceding  year,  the  propositions  of  Mr.  Abbot  would 
have  had  some  chance  of  being  adopted ;  for  they  served,  chiefly,  only 
to  maintain  in  Unitarianism  a  statu  quo  consecrated  by  the  experi- 
ence of  half  a  century.  But,  after  the  Conference  had  officially 
hoisted  its  colours,  this  change  of  name  and  programme  would  not 
have  failed  to  be  represented  as  a  repudiation  of  Christ  and  of  all 
Christian  traditions.  The  only  concession  which  it  showed  itself 
ready  to  grarft  was  to  add  to  its  title,  "  The  National  Conference  of 
Unitarian  Churches,"  the  words,  "and  other  Christian  Churches." 
This  was  a  tender  to  Universalists  and  to  all  liberal  congregations 
whose  internal  development  had,  by  degrees,  brought  them  near  to 
Unitarian  doctrines.  But  Mr.  Abbot,  seeing  his  propositions  rejected, 
withdrew  from  Unitarianism  ;  and  the  following  year  he,  with  many 
of  his  liberal  colleagues, — who,  however,  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
follow  him  in  his  withdrawal, — formed  at  Boston  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  which  had  for  its  object  to  realize,  outside  of  every 
Christian  communion,  the  programme  rejected  by  the  Conference  of 
Syracuse. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Unitarians  were  wanting  in  logic,  when,  on  one 
side,  they  proclaimed  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  reason,  and,  on  the 
other,  sought  to  identify  themselves  with  the  belief  in  the  religious  and 
moral  superiority  of  Christianity.  There  was,  therefore,  a  place  for  a 
broader  organization,  which  should  accept,  in  its  most  remote  conse- 
quences, the  principle  of  free  inquiry,  and  which  should  remain  open 
not  only  to  "  all  the  disciples  of  Christ,"  but  also  to  "all  the  disciples 

1.  James  Freeman  Clarke  and  Francis  Ellingwood  Abbot,  The  Battle  of  Syra- 
cuse, Two  Essays  :  Boston,  1875. 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE    RELIGION    OF    ETHICS.  187 

of  truth," — Christians,  Jews,  Buddhists,  Mohammedans,  Positivists, 
and  even  Atheists, — provided  they  should  have  in  common  the  love 
of  truth  and  the  desire  for  goodness.  The  organizers  of  "  Free 
Religion"  did  not  impose  upon  them  the  sacrifice  of  their  particular 
beliefs,  nor  even  of  their  connections  with  other  religious  associations  : 
all  that  they  asked  of  them  was  to  unite  upon  the  ground  of  spiritual 
unity  detached  from  all  dogmatic  intolerance. 

The  first  article  of  their  constitution  states  it  to  be  the  object  of  the 
Association  "  to  promote  the  practical  interests  of  pure  religion,  to 
increase  fellowship  in  the  spirit,  and  to  encourage  the  scientific  study 
of  man's  religious  nature  and  history."  The  second  article  adds : 
"  Membership  in  this  Association  shall  leave  each  individual  respon- 
sible for  his  own  opinions  alone,  and  affect  in  no  degree  his  relations 
to  other  Associations ;  and  nothing  in  the  name  or  constitution  of 
the  Association  shall  ever  be  construed  as  limiting  membership  by 
any  test  of  speculative  opinion  or  belief,  or  as  defining  the  position 
of  the  Association,  collectively  considered,  with  reference  to  any  such 
opinion  or  belief,  or  as  interfering  in  any  other  way  with  that  absolute 
freedom  of  thought  and  expression  which  is  the  natural  right  of  every 
rational  being." 

The  first  public  meeting,  which  was  held  in  Boston,  May  30,  1867, 
was  a  great  success  for  the  promoters  of  this  movement.  Not  only  a 
large  number  of  the  ministers  and  laity  belonging  to  Unitarian  con- 
gregations responded  to  their  appeal,  but  also  a  considerable  number 
of  well-known  persons  from  the  liberal  elements  of  the  most  diverse 
sects- — Universalists,  Progressive  Quakers,  Jews,  and  even  Spiritualists. 
The  Association  chose  for  its  president  a  Unitarian  minister — who, 
later,  transformed  his  society  at  New  York  into  an  independent 
organization — Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham,  and  for  secretary,  one  of  his 
colleagues  at  New  Bedford,  Mr.  William  J.  Potter,  whose  name  was 
soon  erased  from  the  official  list  of  Unitarian  ministers  for  his  refusal 
to  retain  the  name  of  Christian. 

Besides  its  annual  meetings,  devoted  to  discussions  and  papers, 
the  Free  Religious  Association  instituted  a  series  of  lectures  in 
different  cities  of  the  country,  and  published  a  large  number  of  pam- 
phlets to  disseminate  its  views.  It  has  for  its  organ  The  Index  of 
Boston,  a  weekly  paper — edited  first  by  Mr.  Abbot,  and  now  by 
Messrs.  Potter  and  Underwood — which  deserves  to  be  presented  as 


188  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

a  model  for  all  free-thought  publications  in  both  hemispheres,  as  well 
for  the  attractiveness  of  its  articles  as  for  the  breadth  of  its  ideas,  and 
more  especially  for  the  elevation  of  its  moral  tone. 

During  the  fifteen  years  since  "  Free  Religion  "  thus  took  form,  it 
has  accomplished  a  work  at  once  positive  and  negative — negative,  by 
its  Rationalistic  utterances,  which  undermine  more  and  more  the  bases 
of  dogmatic  sects,  as  well  as  the  privileges  still  accorded  to  the 
Churches,1  and  positive,  by  its  efforts  to  assign  a  common  purpose  to 
the  religious  activity  of  its  members. 

At  its  annual  meeting  in  1882,  the  Free  Religious  Association  re- 
solved to  undertake  a  more  active  propagandism,  with  a  view  to  bring 
about  the  establishment  of  local  associations  to  put  in  practice  the 
principles  of  Free  Religion.  Up  to  the  present,  however,  the  con- 
gregations based  upon  the  programme  of  the  Association  remain  but 
few  in  number.  I  have  seen  no  reference  to  any  but  those  at  Boston, 
Florence,  Dorchester,  East  Dennis  in  Massachusetts,  and  Providence 
in  Rhode-Island.  A  somewhat  curious  characteristic  of  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Congregation,  established  at  Dorchester  by  some  fifty  families, 
is  the  fact  of  its  being  under  the  supervision  of  a  lady,  Mrs.  Clara 
Bisbee.  Some  idea  will  be  gained  of  the  activity  of  the  "  ministress  " 
when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  Mrs.  Bisbee  conducts  the  service,  pre- 
sides at  the  organ,  preaches  the  sermon,  superintends  a  Sunday  school, 
and  gives  lessons  on  the  historic  growth  of  religion  to  a  class  of  adults.2 

1.  The  separation  of  the  Church  from  the  State  is  not  so  complete  among  the 
Americans,  as  we  are  often  led  to  suppose.  It  is  true,  the  religious  communities 
manage  their  own  affairs  as  they  please,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  they  receive  no 
kind  of  subsidy  from  the  Civil  Authority.  But  the  public  institutions  are  still 
strongly  impregnated  with  Christianity.  Congress  and  the  State  Legislatures  have 
their  chaplains  as  well  as  the  fleet,  army  and  prisons.  The  Bible  continues  to  be 
read  in  a  great  number  of  schools.  The  invocation  to  the  Deity  is,  speaking 
generally,  obligatory  in  the  judicial  and  even  in  administrative  oaths.  In  Penn- 
sylvania the  Constitution  demands  that  he  who  occupies  a  public  office,  must  believe 
in  God  and  the  sanctions  of  a  future  life.  The  Constitution  of  Maryland  does  not 
accord  liberty  of  conscience  to  any  but  Theists.  Elsewhere  the  laws  relating  to 
blasphemy  have  never  been  formally  abrogated.  In  certain  States  the  tribunals 
lend  their  influence  more  or  less  indirectly  to  enforce  the  observation  of  the  Sunday. 
In  1880,  a  court  of  law  declined  to  recognise,  even  as  a  natural  obligation,  a  debt 
contracted  on  the  Sunday ;  and  a  traveller  injured  in  a  railway  accident  has  seen 
himself  deprived  of  compensation,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  right  to  take  the 
train  on  the  Lord's  Day.  And  lastly,  the  landed  property  devoted  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  worship  is,  to  a  large  extent,  freed  from  all  kinds  of  taxation. 

2.  Index  of  the  29th  of  June,  1882. 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  189 

Another  Free  Religious  congregation  at  Providence,  R.I.,  in  1881, 
obtained  for  its  minister  the  right  of  performing  legal  marriages, — a 
privilege  till  then  reserved  to  ministers  regularly  ordained  by  a  religious 
denomination  and  to  justices  of  the  peace.  In  connection  with  this 
there  occurred,  between  the  minister  of  the  Free  Religious  congrega- 
tion, Mr.  F.  A.  Hinckley,  and  the  committee  appointed  by  the  local 
legislature  to  decide  whether  "Free  Religion"  was  really  a  religion,  a 
dialogue  which  throws  a  very  curious  light  upon  the  attitude  adopted 
by  the  adherents  of  the  new  worship,  in  regard  to  theological  ques- 
tions, properly  so  called.  As  the  constitution  of  the  society  assigned 
to  it  "  the  practice  of  virtue,  the  study  of  truth,  and  the  brotherhood 
of  man,"  the  chairman  of  the  committee  remarked  that  he  could  not 
discover  to  whom  the  petitioners  addressed  themselves  in  worship. 

Rev.  F.  A.  Hinckley — "As  individuals,  we  represent  all  shades  of 
liberal  opinion ;  but,  as  a  society,  we  have  a  distinct  element  of  wor- 
ship. All  sane  minds  recognize  a  Power  over  and  above  us.  We 
claim  that  the  one  great  essential  principle  is  recognized  when  we  re- 
cognize this  Power,  though  we  do  not  recognize  it  in  the  same  manner 
as  do  other  denominations." 

A  Member — "  What  do  you  worship  ?  " 

Rev.  Mr.  Hinckley — "  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  tell  you  ;  but  I  do 
not  think  it  is  within  the  province  of  the  State  to  define  what  men 
shall  or  may  worship." 

Member — "  I  understood  that  you  said  the  other  day  that  you  did 
not  recognize  God,  Christ,  or  the  Bible." 

Rev.  Mr.  Hinckley — "  What  I  said  was  that  we  could  not  recognize 
them  as  the  creeds  do.  We  do  recognize  a  Power  over  and  above  the 
human." 

Member — "  What  you  call  a  Power  is  what  other  people  call 
God?" 

Rev.  Mr.  Hinckley — "  Now,  you  begin  to  define.  The  moment 
you  do  that,  you  find  irreconcilable  differences  in  the  Churches  as 
well  as  out  of  them." 

It  should  be  said  that  the  petitioners  obtained  the  support  of  several 
ministers  belonging  to  the  Episcopal,  Congregational,  and  Unitarian 
Churches  of  the  city.  We  see  thus  that  the  spirit  of  religious  tolera- 
tion has  not  degenerated  in  the  old  colony  of  Roger  Williams. 


190  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS. 

To  the  congregations  directly  founded  upon  the  principles  of  "Free 
Religion"  may  be  added  certain  independent  societies  of  every  re- 
ligious denomination,  as  the  First  Congregation  of  New  Bedford, 
which  continued  to  sustain  its  minister,  Mr.  William  J.  Potter,  when 
his  name  was  erased  from  the  Unitarian  Year-Book.  This  Church, 
having  its  origin  among  the  Puritans  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  is  reckoned  as  one  of  the  first  societies  of  Calvinistic 
descent  which  openly  raised  the  Unitarian  standard ;  for  this  rupture 
with  Orthodoxy  dates  from  1810, — that  is,  nine  years  before  the  dis- 
course of  Channing,  which  was  the  distinctive  signal  of  the  schism. 
It  would  be  very  interesting  to  follow  the  movements  of  ideas  which 
thus  led  from  the  strictest  Calvinism  to  the  most  absolute  Liberalism, 
a  congregation  standing  in  the  ordinary  conditions  of  American 
Churches.  The  different  stages  of  this  evolution  would  appear  only 
in  successive  modifications  of  the  ritual;  the  widening  of  the  pro- 
fession of  faith  imposed  upon  communicants ;  the  disappearance  of 
all  distinction  between  communicants  and  non-communicants,  between 
the  members  of  the  church  and  the  members  of  the  society;  the 
transformation  of  the  sacrament  of  the  communion  into  a  ceremony 
commemorative  of  the  foundation  of  Christianity ;  the  displacement 
of  Christian  symbolism  by  a  service  in  honour  of  all  the  great  re- 
ligious and  social  reformers.  It  is  this  which  Mr.  Potter  set  forth  as 
follows  in  a  sermon  preached  before  his  congregation  in  1874  : — 

"  The  Society  has  been  in  your  day,  as  in  the  days  of  our  ecclesi- 
astical ancestors,  under  the  law  of  evolution.  It  has  progressed  by 
natural  growth.  .  .  .  There  has  been  no  break,  no  violence,  no 
revolution,  no  coup  d'etat.  Your  present  has  grown  out  of  your  past, 
and  whatever  it  be,  is  the  logical  consequence  of  your  past.  You  have 
come  in  your  historical  career, — and  that  not  so  much  by  the  special 
design  of  the  Society,  at  any  particular  moment,  as  by  the  force  of 
the  natural  logic  of  your  course, — to  the  point  where  the  use  of  creeds 
and  covenants  and  even  of  names  as  representing  theological  distinc- 
tions, having  naturally  dropped  away,  you  have  opened  the  door  to 
anyone  of  whatever  faith,  who  may  be  drawn  to  seek  fellowship  among 
you.  .  .  .  No  one  stands  there  to  question  any  comer's  present 
belief,  or  religious  antecedents.  Should  any  of  those  who  have  been 
called  'infidels'  for  any  reason,  secret  or  open,  be  attracted  to  these 
services,  and  desire  regularly  to  associate  with  you,  there  is  nothing 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF    ETHICS.  191 

in  your  rules  of  membership,  and  I  know  of  nothing  in  your  spirit, 
that  would  shut  the  door  against  them.  Or  Should  any  of  the  Pro- 
gressive Jews,  who  are  becoming  prominent  in  the  Judaism  of  this 
country,  or  any  of  the  liberal  adherents  of  the  Asiatic  faiths,  Hindu, 
Buddhist,  Mohammedan,  chance  to  come  to  our  city,  as  temporary  or 
permanent  residents,  as  is  possible  in  this  era  of  migration  and  travel, 
and  should  they  find  anything  helpful  in  these  Sunday  services,  and 
be  drawn  to  seek  religious  fellowship  among  you,  again  I  know  of 
nothing  in  your  spirit,  and  there  is  certainly  nothing  in  your  rules  of 
membership,  that  would  exclude  them.  Though  organized  and  pro- 
gressing historically  as  a  Christian  Society,  yet  by  the  logical  force  of 
the  Protestant  principle  of  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and  of  free 
inquiry,  you  have  gradually  widened  your  conditions  of  fellowship, 
until  you  recognize  no  conditions  less  broad  than  the  human  aspira- 
tion after  truth  and  virtue  and  spiritual  peace.  Consistently  with  this 
record,  the  only  opinion  you  could  call  heresy  would  be  the  opinion 
that  should  put  creed  before  character,  and  subordinate  the  reality  of 
a  religious  life  to  the  wearing  of  a  religious  name."1 

Though  independent  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  the  Society 
for  Ethical  Culture  in  New  York  equally  deserves  a  place  in  the  first 
rank  among  the  associations  which  have  set  up  the  standard  of  "Free 
Religion."  Its  minister,  or  rather  its  director,  Mr.  Felix  Adler,  from 
1878  to  1882  was  president  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  whose 
ethical  and  humanitarian  tendencies  he  especially  represents — that  is, 
the  part  of  the  constitution  above  cited  which  relates  to  "  the  prac- 
tical interests  of  pure  religion."  It  cannot  be  disguised  that  one  of 
the  most  threatening  issues  for  the  future  of  modern  society  is  that 
the  weakening  of  positive  religion  weakens  the  power  of  morality, 
which  has  been  so  long  linked  to  religious  dogmas.  Rationalists  have 
seen  this  peril  in  the  United  States  as  in  Europe ;  but,  while  here 
they  have  endeavoured  to  establish  morality  upon  principles  indepen- 
dent of  religion,  there  they  seek  to  subordinate  religion  to  it.  Such 
is  at  least  the  tendency  of  which  Professor  Felix  Adler  is  to-day  the 
most  brilliant  interpreter.  Mr.  Adler  is  a  young  man  whose  mystic 
physiognomy  recalls  certain  heads  of  the  apostles.     His  father  filled 

1.  W.  J.  Potter.       T%vo  Discourses  delivered  before  the  First   Congregational 
Society.     New  Bedford,  1874. 


192  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE    RELIGION   OF   ETHICS. 

the  office  of  rabbi  in  the  principal  Jewish  synagogue  in  New  York. 
He  himself  was  destined  for  the  priesthood ;  but,  having  been  sent  to 
Germany  to  complete  his  education,  he  there  acquired  Rationalistic 
convictions,  which  barred  him  from  following  his  father's  career. 
On  his  return  to  the  United  States,  in  1873,  he  accepted  a  professor- 
ship in  Cornell  University,  which  he  quitted  three  years  afterwards  to 
establish  at  New  York  a  new  religious  association,  under  the  title  of 
"The  Society  for  Ethical  Culture." 

In  philosophy,  Mr.  Adler  belongs  to  the  intuitive  school,  since  he 
believes  in  the  existence,  in  the  human  mind,  of  certain  elements 
anterior  and  superior  to  all  individual  or  even  hereditary  experience. 
But,  in  metaphysics,  he  holds  strictly  to  the  postulates  of  Kant,  with- 
out attributing  objective  reality  to  the  notions  of  God  and  immortality. 
"  I  do  not  accept  Theism,"  he  says,  in  one  of  his  lectures,  "  but  the 
foundation  can  exist  very  well  without  a  particular  structure,  and 
others  may  be  raised  upon  it  when  the  ancient  one  has  crumbled  into 
ruins.  I  cling  with  all  my  soul  to  the  foundation  on  which  Theism 
has  been  built :  first,  the  denial  of  chance,  the  conviction  that  there 
is  order  in  the  world  ;  secondly,  the  conviction  that  this  order  is  a 
good  order,  that  there  is  progress  in  the  world."  According  to  this, 
it  is  not  God,  but  moral  law,  which  should  be  the  object  of  religion. 
This  religion,  moreover,  would  be  eminently  practical.  "Since  diver- 
gency of  beliefs  will  continue  to  be  emphasized,  it  is  necessary  to 
place  the  moral  law  where  it  cannot  be  discussed — in  practice.  Men 
have  so  long  disputed  about  the  author  of  the  law  that  the  law  itself 
has  remained  in  shadow.  Our  movement  is  an  appeal  to  conscience, 
a  cry  for  more  justice,  an  exhortation  to  more  duty."1 

The  first  condition  of  success  in  such  an  undertaking,  is  to  preach 
by  example,  and  in  this  respect  Ethical  Culture  is  not  less  rigid  than 
the  old  religious  morality ;  only  its  field  of  action  is  much  more  ex- 
tended. 

The  associations  for  moral  culture,  says  Mr.  Adler,  exercise  an 
influence  which  is  the  more  efficacious  because  they  are  founded  on 
the  personal  regeneration  of  their  members,  and  he  mentions  the 

1.  Index  of  the  15th  of  September,  1S81.  This  Agnosticism  does  not  prevent 
Mr.  Adler  from  recognizing  the  existence  of  an  "  Ultimate  Reality  which  lies 
behind  all  phenomena  and  from  which  the  harmony  of  the  world  arises. "  {Index 
of  the  22nd  of  September,  18S1). 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE    RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  193 

Temperance  societies  as  an  instance  of  this.  But  these  pursue  only 
one  special  aim,  whilst  Ethical  Culture,  being  a  religious  reform, 
must  be  extended  to  every  sphere  of  human  activity.  Thus,  to 
borrow  an  illustration  from  the  domain  of  Political  Economy,  he  con- 
tinues, suppose  you  believed  in  the  justice  of  a  tax  to  be  fixed  pro- 
gressively according  to  a  person's  income :  then  you  would  not  rest 
content  with  waiting  for  such  an  arrangement  to  become  law ;  but,  if 
you  wished  to  fulfil  your  religious  duty,  you  would  hasten  to  cast  into 
the  Public  Treasury  the  sum  which  the  general  and  obligatory  appli- 
cation of  your  system  would  demand  from  you. 

It  is  upon  these  principles  that  Mr.  Adler  has  organized  his  society 
in  New  York,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  most  advanced  minds  of 
American  Judaism.  By  degrees,  some  "Gentiles"  have  joined  it, 
attracted  as  much  by  the  growing  reputation  of  the  young  reformer  as 
by  the  largeness  of  his  ideas;  and,  since  1880,  the  society  has  been 
obliged  to  occupy  a  more  spacious  hall.  It  has,  indeed,  one  of  the 
largest  congregations  in  New  York.  Its  "  services,"  which  take  place 
on  Sunday  mornings,  consist  only  of  a  lecture,  between  two  pieces  of 
music.  But,  after  the  public  have  left,  the  members  come  together 
in  a  private  meeting  for  considering  the  different  social  works  which 
they  have  established.  These  institutions  are:  (1)  a  Sunday  School 
for  the  teaching  of  morals,  as  well  as  for  instruction  in  the  history  of 
the  principal  faiths  and  even  in  the  philosophy  of  religion ;  (2)  a 
public  kinder-garten  organized  after  the  method  of  Froebel ;  (3)  an 
industrial  school,  which  was  opened  in  1878,  with  but  one  teacher 
and  eight  pupils,  and  possesses  to-day  a  principal,  eight  assistant 
masters,  and  250  scholars  between  the  ages  of  three  and  nine:  its 
instruction  is  free  and  in  certain  necessitous  cases  food  and  clothing 
are  given  to  the  children  gratuitously;  (4)  a  technical  museum  at- 
tached to  the  school ;  and  (5)  a  service  of  visitors  or  rather  district 
nurses,  who  daily  carry  on  their  labour  of  love  among  the  sick  poor 
in  the  most  wretched  district  of  New  York. 

The  success  of  these  undertakings  has  been  a  new  means  of  pro- 
pagandism  for  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  which  has  thus  won  the 
esteem  of  even  those  who  are  hostile  to  its  principles.  It  leaves, 
moreover,  complete  freedom  to  its  members  in  the  choice  of  their  in- 
dividual religious  beliefs.     All  that  it  asks  from  them  is,  that  they 


194  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS. 

shall  place  the  duties  of  religion  exclusively  in  the  individual  and 
social  regeneration  of  humanity. 

A  branch  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  has  been  recently 
organized  at  Chicago,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  W.  Salter,  and  it  has 
already  begun  to  surround  itself  with  philanthropical  institutions  based 
upon  the  model  of  the  parent  association.1 

The  Religion  of  Ethics  is  sometimes  called  by  its  adepts  the  Re- 
ligion of  Humanity.  And  assuredly  it  possesses  as  strong  a  claim  to 
this  appellation  as  Comtism,  and  a  still  stronger  one  than  Secularism. 
It  might  be  defined,  indeed,  as  Comtism  without  dogmatism,  and  as 
Secularism  with  the  addition  of  the  religious  spirit. 

The  influence  of  "  Free  Religion"  is  not  limited  to  those  societies 
which  have  accepted  its  name  or  its  patronage.  The  Free  Religious 
Association  has  become  for  Unitarianism  what  Unitarianism  itself  has 
been  for  other  communions — a  leaven  of  intellectual  liberty.  The 
Unitarians  reckon,  in  the  United  States,  according  to  their  Annual 
Report  of  1880,  three  hundred  and  forty-four  congregations,  three 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  ministers  (of  whom  three  are  women),2  two 
colleges,  one  at  Harvard  and  the  other  at  Meadville,  one  monthly 
review  and  several  weekly  journals,  together  with  numerous  charitable 
and  philanthropical  institutions. 

It  might  have  been  feared  that  after  the  secession  of  Messrs.  Abbot, 
Potter,  &c,  their  National  Conference  would  incline  more  to  the  right 
wing.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  did  not  hesitate  to  introduce  into  its 
rules,  on  the  motion  of  the  Rev.  George  Hepworth,  a  new  paragraph 
in  which,  while  re-affirming  "  allegiance  to  the  Gospel,"  it  solicited 
the  co-operation  of  all  "who  wish  to  be  followers  of  Christ."  But 
shortly  afterwards  the  author  of  this  proposition  went  over  to  ortho- 
doxy, and  with  this  disappearance  of  extreme  elements,  disappeared 
also  the  principal  vitality  of  the  controversy  which  had  been  carried 
on  from  the  foundation  of  the  Conference ;  and  Unitarianism  was 
thus  able  to  concentrate  its  activity  upon  practical  measures  calculated 

1.  Another  branch  from  the  parent  society  was  established  in  Boston  last  year 
( 1 884).  —  Translator. 

2.  It  was  one  of  these  ministresses,  Mary  A.  Safford,  who  preached  the  anniver- 
sary sermon  of  the  "Western  Unitarian  Conference,  on  the  occasion  of  its  meeting  at 
Chicago,  in  1883.  The  subject  was  :  "Religion,  its  nature  and  development." — 
See  Unity,  of  the  16th  of  May,  1S83. 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF    ETHICS.  195 

to  bring  it  nearer  to  the  position  chosen  by  the  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion. Hence  to  figure  in  future  on  the  roll  of  Unitarianism  it  will 
suffice  to  style  oneself  a  Christian  after  the  manner  of  the  Rev.  — 
Chadwick,  of  Brooklyn,  who  extends  this  term  to  all  who  have  formed 
their  religious  beliefs  within  the  line  of  development  of  Christian  civil- 
ization. The  National  Conference  has  even  resolved  to  inscribe  on 
its  official  list  of  ministers  the  names  of  all  who  might  desire  this,  and 
who,  in  consequence,  would  consider  themselves  in  their  place  there. 
At  the  session  of  1882,  indeed,  it  introduced  into  its  constitution  a 
new  article,  drawn  up  as  follows,  by  the  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage  : — 

"  While  we  believe  that  the  preamble  of  the  articles  of  our  Consti- 
tution fairly  represent  the  opinions  of  the  majority  of  our  Churches, 
yet  we  wish  distinctly  to  put  on  record  our  declaration  that  they  are 
no  authoritative  test  of  Unitarianism,  and  are  not  intended  to  exclude 
from  our  fellowship  any  who,  while  differing  from  us  in  belief,  are  in 
general  sympathy  with  our  purposes  and  practical  aims." 

On  several  occasions  within  recent  years  Unitarian  ministers  have 
been  seen  to  place  their  pulpits  at  the  disposal  of  Agnostics  such  as 
Messrs.  Adler  and  Underwood,  while  Mr.  Holyoake,  as  a  Secularist, 
and  even  Mr.  Gottheil,  of  New  York,  a  liberal  Rabbi,  have  not  been 
excluded. 

The  United  States  have  remained  the  head  quarters  of  Unitarian- 
ism. A  proof  of  the  influence  it  still  possesses  there  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  fact  that  in  the  autumn  of  1882,  it  collected  by  private  subscrip- 
tion, in  a  few  days,  the  sum  of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds,  to  found 
a  new  theological  institution.  Still  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  extended 
in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  population.  Even  in  Boston,  where 
it  possesses  about  thirty  congregations,  it  has  scarcely  penetrated  to 
the  lower  classes,  in  which  the  predominance  of  Irish  emigrants  has 
developed  to  a  considerable  extent  the  power  of  Catholicism ;  and 
among  the  superior  classes  it  is  opposed  by  the  Episcopal  Church, 
which  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  fashionable  Church  of  the 
United  States.  Besides,  Boston  itself  has  ceased  to  be  the  exclusive 
centre  of  intellectual  culture,  "  the  hub  of  the  universe,"  as  the 
neighbouring  towns  less  favoured  in  the  domain  of  intelligence,  have 
ironically  called  it.  On  the  one  hand,  the  invasion  of  luxury  and  of 
social  frivolity,  has  somewhat  broke  in  upon  the  simplicity  of  manners 
and  the  thirst  for  moral  enjoyment  which  had  survived  the  severity  of 


196  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF    ETHICS. 

Calvinistic  theology ;  on  the  other,  St.  Louis,  Chicago  and  other 
towns  of  recent  growth,  are  disputing  with  it  the  monopoly  of  letters 
and  the  direction  of  American  thought. 

Happily  for  its  numerical  development,  Unitarianism  has  found  a 
fertile  field  for  exploration  in  the  states  of  the  interior,  where  it  re- 
sponds at  once  to  the  double  need  of  intellectual  liberty  and  of 
religious  culture.  It  is  not  surprising,  that  it  has  taken  a  more  inde- 
pendent position  there  than  in  the  Eastern  States.  The  Western 
Unitarian  Conference  has  omitted  in  its  constitution  the  preamble 
which  provoked  such  regrettable  dissensions  in  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  1865.1    Its  principal  organ,  Unity,  edited  with  great  breadth 

1.  The  following  particulars  respecting  the  constitution  and  principles  of  the 
various  Unitarian  Churches  and  organization  of  the  West  will  be  of  interest  to  the 
reader  : — 

I. — Bases  of  the  General  Unitarian  Associations  of  the  West. 

(1)  The  Western  Unitarian  Conferetice. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  conditions  its  fellowship  on 
no  dogmatic  tests,  but  welcomes  all  thereto  who  desire  to  work  with  it  in  advancing 
the  Kingdom  of  God." — Resolution  adopted  tmanimotisly  at  Chicago,  May  7,  1875. 

Its  object:  "The  transaction  of  business  pertaining  to  the  general  interests  of 
the  Societies  connected  with  the  Conference. — Articles  of  Incorporation,  May  20, 
1882. 

Motto  071  its  Seal:  "  Freedom,  Fellowship  and  Character  in  Religion." 

(2)  The  Women 's  Western  Unitarian  Conferetice. 

Its  object :  ' '  The  advancement  of  freedom,  fellowship  and  character  in  religion. " 
— Articles  of  Incorporation,  May  3,  1882. 

(3)  The  Western  Unitarian  Sunday  School  Society. 

Its  object :  "  To  improve  the  quality  of  Sunday  School  publications,  and  to  aid 
in  making  Sunday  Schools  effective  nurseries  of  progressive,  reverent  and  helpful 
Churches." — Articles  of  Incorporation,  May  22,  1882. 

II. — Bases  of  the  Unitarian  State  Conferences  of  the  West. 

(1)  Wisconsin  Conference  of  Unitarian  and  Independent  Societies. 

"Resolved,  that  charity  being  the  central  truth  of  all,  and  Unitarianism's 
grandest  mission  being  to  unite  men  in  "the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace,"  we  will  welcome  and  fraternize  with  all  men  of  whatever  denomination, 
who  are  trying  to  advance  in  religious  life." — Adopted,  1872. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Conference  re-affirms  its  broad  platform  of  faith  in  God 
and  man  ;  that  we  will  work  for  the  advance  of  truth  rather  than  the  defence  o£ 
dogma  ;  for  humanity  rather  than  for  any  sect ;  for  charity  against  churchism;  and 
that  we  hold  the  name  Unitarian  in  no  narrower  sense  than  that  of  effort  to  unite 
the  best  methods  and  spirit  in  all  denominations  under  a  peace  that  may  become 
universal." — Adopted,  1873. 

(2)  Michigan  Conference  of  Unitarian  and  other  Christian  Clmrches. 

"Whereas,  we  are  persuaded  that  the  truth  on  all  subjects,  as  fast  as  it  becomes 
known  to  us,  is  the  sole  and  sufficient  authority  for  all  human  belief;  that  justice  is 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  197 

of  view  by  the  Rev.  Jenkins  L.  Jones,  has  taken  for  its  watchword 
the  motto  of  Free  Religion :  freedom,  character  and  fellowship  in 
religion.  Numerous  churches  and  even  entire  groups  of  congrega- 
tions, such  as  the  Conferences  of  Michigan  and  of  Kansas,  the  Fra- 
ternity of  the  Liberal  Religious  Societies  of  Illinois,  are  declared  open 
to  all  who  can  work  with  them,  or  derive  any  good  from  them.  Thus 
the  committee  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  said  in  their  report 
for  1881,  that  "in  the  broadening  and  liberalizing  of  Unitarianism  in 
the  West,  perhaps,  can  be  found  the  most  tangible  evidence  that  one 
of  the  missions  of  the  Association,  in  its  fourteen  years  of  existence, 
has  not  been  in  vain ;  and  evidence  too  that  its  work  is  not  yet  com- 
pleted." 

the  certain  and  practicable  law  of  all  human  conduct :  that  love  is  the  highest  and 
most  effective  temper  of  the  human  spirit :    and 

Whereas,  we  desire  to  rally  the  liberal  minds  of  Michigan  around  this  common 
centre,  therefore,  resolved,  that  the  Michigan  Unitarian  Conference  conditions  its 
fellowship  on  no  dogmatic  tests,  but  welcomes  all  thereto  who  desire  to  work  with 
it  in  advancing  the  kingdom  of  truth,  righteousness  and  love." — Adopted,  October, 
187S. 

(3)  Illinois  Fraternity  of  Liberal  Religious  Societies. 

"  We  associate  together  as  a  religious  fraternity  in  the  interest  of  liberal  and 
advanced  thought.  .  .  .  We  cordially  invite  to  our  fraternity  all  who  would 
assist  us  in  the  advancement  of  truth  and  righteousness." — Constitution. 

Purpose:  "We  associate  together  as  a  religious  fraternity  in  the  interest  of 
liberal  and  advanced  thought ;  our  meetings  to  be  so  conducted  as  shall  mo9t 
directly  conduce  to  our  fraternal  fellowship,  our  spiritual  welfare  and  usefulness. 
We  cordially  invite  to  our  fraternity  all  who  would  assist  us  in  the  advancement  of 
truth  and  righteousness." — Adopted,  1873. 

(4)  Iowa  Association  of  Unitarian  and  other  Independent  Churches, 

"The  object  of  this  Incorporation  shall  be  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of 
religion,  of  righteousness,  freedom,  and  fellowship." — Articles  of  Incorporation,  1879. 

(5)  Kansas  Unitarian  Conference. 

Its  object:  "To  advance  the  cause  of  freedom,  fellowship,  and  character  in 
religion  throughout  the  State  of  Kansas. 

"This  Conference  conditions  its  membership  on  no  dogmatic  tests,  but  invites 
the  co-operation  of  all  those  willing  to  work  with  it  for  the  advancement  of  truth 
and  righteousness." — Constitution,  adopted,  1880. 

(6)  Nebraska  Unitarian  Association. 

Object:  "To  be  the  advancement  of  freedom,  fellowship  and  character  in 
religion  in  the  State  of  Nebraska." — Articles  of  Incorporation,  1882. 

III.— Recent  Unitarian  Church  Covenants  in  the  West. 
(1)   The  Church  at  Ann  Arbour,  Michigan. 

"Believing  in  that  Religion  of  Nature  and  the  Human  Soul,  which  existed 
before  all  Bibles,  which  has  uttered  itself  with  greater  or  less  clearness  through 
the  religious  teachers  of  all  lands  and  ages,  but  which  was  taught  and  impressed 


198  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

The  course  of  ideas  which  has  thus  emancipated  Unitarianism  has 
been  equally  felt  by  many  other  sects.  The  Universalists,  for  instance, 
who  claim  to  have  a  thousand  congregations,  possesses  an  advanced 
section  who  fraternize  with  the  Free  Religious  movement.  In  the 
same  way,  the  Progressive  Friends  of  Longwood,  in  Pennsylvania, 
have  absolutely  adopted  the  programme  of  "  Free  Religion,"  if  we  are 
to  judge  from  this  manifesto  put  forward  by  their  General  Assembly 
in  1 88 1  : — "The  object  of  this  meeting  is  to  promote  religion  con- 
strued broadly  as  embracing  all  good,  physical,  moral  and  spiritual. 
Untrammelled  by  dogma,  we  paternally  invite  to  meet  with  us  all 
those  who  desire  to  make  the  world  purer  and  better,  and  who  hold 
the  truth  in  higher  honour  than  any  creed  or  sect.     We  would  meet 

upon  the  world  with  unequalled  power  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  great  prophet 
ot  God,  from  whose  words  and  life  came  Christianity,  we  (the  undersigned),  do 
hereby  associate  ourselves  together  as  a  Christian  Church,  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting that  religion  in  ourselves  and  in  society  around  us,  by  cultivating  among 
ourselves  a  spirit  of  sincere  and  loving  brotherhood,  and  by  endeavouring  in  every 
way  in  our  power  to  do  good  in  the  world.  Imposing  no  creed  upon  the  consciences 
of  any,  we  cordially  welcome  all  to  a  place  among  us  who  sympathize  with  us  in 
these  our  general  aims." — Adopted,  1880. 

(2)  The  Church  at  Des  Moines,  Ioioa. 

Bond  of  Union:  "Recognizing  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  Brotherhood  of 
Mankind,  receiving  Jesus  as  Teacher,  seeking  the  '  Spirit  of  Truth '  as  the  guide 
of  our  lives,  and  in  the  hope  of  immortal  life,  we  associate  ourselves  together  to 
maintain  the  public  worship  of  God  and  to  promote  the  welfare  of  humanity." — 
Adopted,  i8yy. 

(3)  The  Church  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Bond  of  Union  :  "We,  whose  names  are  here  recorded,  join  ourselves  together, 
heart  and  hand,  as  members  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Cincinnati,  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  free,  rational  and  liberal  worship,  the  study  and  practice  of 
the  religious  life,  and  to  promote  truth,  righteousness,  reverence  and  charity  among 
men  ;  and  we  cordially  invite  to  our  fellowship  all  who  sympathize  in  these  pur- 
poses and  will  co-operate  with  us  in  working  for  the  Kingdom  of  God." — 
Adopted,  1879. 

(4)  The  Church  at  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

The  Bond  of  Fellowship  :  "As  those  who  believe  in  Religion  ; 

"As  those  who  believe  in  Freedom,  Fellowship  and  Character  in  Religion ; 

"As  those  who  believe  that  the  Religious  Life  means  the  thankful,  trustful, 
loyal  and  helpful  life  ; 

"  And  as  those  who  believe  that  a  Church  is  a  brotherhood  of  helpers,  wherein 
it  is  made  easier  to  lead  such  a  life, — 

"We  join  ourselves  together,  name,  hand  and  heart,  as  members  of  Unity 
Church. 

"To  sign  this  Bond  of  Fellowship  is  a  solemn  act  of  faith,  of  brotherhood, 
and  of  consecration.  Of  faith  in  certain  high  ideals  of  life,  which  we  revere  as 
more  important  than  any  intellectual  beliefs  whatever ;  of  brotherhood  to  the  men 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  199 

on  common  ground  as  brethren  to  consider  by  what  means  we  may 
labour  most  effectually  to  lift  humanity  to  higher  levels.  In  a  reverent 
spirit,  we  would  examine  the  religious  institutions  which  have  grown 
out  of  the  wants  and  convictions  of  the  past,  accepting  them  so  far  as 
they  commend  themselves  to  our  conscientious  judgment,  and  rejecting 
them  freely  when  we  must.  Our  supreme  allegiance  is  due,  not  to 
the  decrees  of  men,  but  to  truth  itself." 

With  regard  to  Reformed  Judaism,  there  is  an  important  section 
who, — while  entirely  refusing  to  renounce  their  historic  position,  in 
order  to  avoid  all  suspicion  of  giving  up  their  ancestral  faith,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  social  prejudices  which  persist  even  in  the  New 
World — have  nevertheless  seized  the  occasion  for  allying  themselves, 

and  women  who  here  join  themselves  together,  name,  hand  and  heart ;  of  conse- 
cration, because  one  cannot  take  a  pledge  like  this,  of  religious  faith  and  fellowship, 
save  in  a  reverent,  earnest  and  unselfish  spirit.  To  join  our  Church,  then,  is  to 
enter  into  a  covenant  of  love  and  service  and  right  endeavour  with  each  other,  and 
to  do  this  thoughtfully  and  reverently,  as  before  One  whom  most  of  us  rejoice  to 
think  of  as  'our  Father.' 

"All  who  in  this  reverent  and  earnest  spirit  believe  that  our  Church-home  is 
truly  their  Church-home,  and  who  feel  that  that  which  our  Church  stands  for  in 
religion  is  what  they  mean  their  life  to  stand  for— all  such,  provided  none  show 
good  reason  for  objection,  are  welcomed  heartily  within  our  Fellowship." — 
Adopted,  1879. 

(5)   The  Church  at  Quincy,  Illinois. 

The  Covenant:  "  We  believe — 

"  That  Religion  is  natural  and  needful  to  the  human  soul ; 

"  That  the  many  things  of  the  universe  have  their  being  in  One  Life,  Power, 
Mystery,  Righteousness,  Mercy  and  Love  ; 

"That  the  universe  is  beautiful  and  beneficent  Order,  in  which  'is  no  vari- 
ableness, neither  shadow  of  turning ; ' 

"That  '  all  things  work  together  for  good ;  '  that  the  Infinite  Life  in  which  we 
have  our  being  is  Power  in  the  world  to  destroy  the  wrong,  to  establish  the  right ; 
that  no  good  thing  is  failure  and  no  evil  thing  is  success ; 

"That  we  ought  to  reverence  all  holy  saints,  seers  and  prophets  who  'have 
wrought  righteousness,'  and  bless  them  for  the  light  of  their  wisdom  and  goodness; 

"  That  we  ought  to  work  to  make  the  world  belter ; 

"That  character  is  the  supreme  matter — not  the  beliefs  we  hold,  but  what  we 
are  in  the  heart ; 

"That  in  the  search  for  truth,  we  ought  to  hold  fast  to  freedom  for  ourselves 
and  for  all  men  ; 

"  That  we  ought  to  welcome  to  our  Fellowship  all  who  are  of  earnest  and  sin- 
cere spirit  and  humble  lovers  of  the  truth  ;  that  we  should  set  the  bond  of  human 
brotherhood  high  above  that  of  creed  or  church ;  and  that  we  ought  not  to  hold 
theological  beliefs  as  conditions  of  our  membership. 

"In  these  principles,  and  that  we  may  help,  comfort  and  cheer  each  other,  we 
join  our  hearts  and  hands  in  this  Church,  and  hereto  set  our  names." — Adopted,  1883. 


200  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

on  the  practical  ground  of  religious  fraternity,  with  the  intellectual 
and  moral  forces  of  a  civilization  to  which  they  will  be  for  the  future 
completely  assimilated.  The  Reform  of  Judaism  has  perhaps  been 
carried  further  in  the  United  States  than  anywhere  else.  Not  only 
have  the  party  of  Reform  freed  themselves  from  all  the  ritualistic, 
hygienic  and  social  prescriptions  which  constitute  the  old  law ;  but 
there  are  also  Rabbis  who,  not  content  with  rejecting  the  infallibility 
of  the  Bible,  go  so  far  as  to  question  the  Divine  Personality,  that 
corner-stone  of  Semitic  beliefs.  Thus  Rabbi  S.  W.  Sonnesheim  did 
not  hesitate  to  declare  at  the  seventh  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  that  Reformed  Judaism  corresponded  with  the  "Free 
Religious  movement  of  the  day." 

As  much  might  doubtless  be  said  of  the  numerous  Freie-Religiose- 
Gemeinde  which  the  Germans  have  imported  into  the  United  States. 
By  being  brought  over  the  Atlantic  the  greater  part  of  these  institu- 
tions have  certainly  assumed  a  more  Radical  character,  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  programme  which  was  adopted  by  their  delegates  at  the  Con- 
vention of  Milwaukee,  in  1870.  They  there  virtually  declared  in 
Article  2,  their  exclusion  of  all  idea  of  a  God,  personal  or  impersonal," 
without  seeing  that  they  re-introduced  the  conception  of  the  Deity  in 
the  following  Article  :  "  In  Nature  we  recognise  Justice,  the  continual 
development  towards  perfection  and  towards  that  fulness  of  the  Beau- 
tiful which  suffuses  our  existence  with  joy." 

And  lastly  we  must  not  forget  in  this  enumeration,  the  Spiritualists, 
who  claim  to  possess  three  million  adherents  in  the  United  States  and 
who,  according  to  Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham,  certainly  amount  to  at 
least  one  million.  In  the  United  States  even  more  than  in  England 
Spiritualism  tends  to  become  an  actual  religion.  Here  is  what  Mr.  W. 
Hepworth  Dixon  stated,  fifteen  years  ago,  in  his  curious  work,  New 
America: — "These  millions,more  or  less,  of  Spiritualists  announce  their 
personal  conviction  that  the  old  religious  gospels  are  exhausted,  that  the 
churches  founded  on  them  are  dead ;  that  new  revelations  are  required 
by  men.  They  proclaim  that  the  phenomena,  now  being  produced  in 
a  hundred  American  cities — signs  of  mysterious  origin,  rappings  by 
unknown  agents,  drawings  by  unseen  hands — offer  an  acceptable 
ground-plan  for  a  new,  a  true  and  a  final  faith  in  things  unseen.  They 
have  already  their  progressive  lyceums,  their  catechisms,  their  news- 


FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  201 

papers,  their  male  and  female  prophets,  mediums  and  clairvoyants ; 
their  Sunday  services,  their  festivals,  their  pic-nic  parties,  their  camp- 
meetings,  their  local  societies,  their  State  organizations,  their  general 
conventions ;  in  short,  all  the  machinery  of  our  most  active,  most 
aggressive  societies.1  .  .  .  When  we  essay  to  judge  a  system  so 
repugnant  to  our  feelings,  so  hostile  to  our  institutions,  as  this  school 
of  Spiritualism,  it  is  needful,  if  we  would  be  fair  in  censure,  to 
remember  that,  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  onlookers,  it  has  been  em- 
braced by  hundreds  of  learned  men  and  pious  women." 

The  Legislature  of  Illinois  recently  imposed  on  every  medium  a 
license  costing  three  hundred  dollars ;  immediately  the  Spiritualists 
cried  out  against  it  as  an  act  of  religious  oppression,  on  the  ground 
that  the  mediums  fulfil  with  their  co-religionists  the  functions  of  the 
priest  in  the  Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Jewish  religions.  On  the  other 
hand,  Spiritualism  seems  to  fraternize  everywhere,  not  only  with  the 
adherents  of  Free  Religion,  but  also  with  Agnostics,  Atheists,  and 
even  Materialists,  lending  them  its  buildings,  the  aid  of  its  journals, 
and  even  its  lecturers.2  "  Every  Spiritualist  is  of  necessity  a  Free 
Religionist, — said  one  of  its  partisans,  Mr.  Giles  B.  Stebbins,  at  the 
fourteenth  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Association — because  the 
Spiritual  philosophy,  broad,  eclectic  and  inclusive,  knows  no  preju- 
dices, no  limitations,  no  barriers,  recognises  no  authority  for  truth,  but 
only  the  truth  of  the  soul  for  authority,  and  accepts  the  instructions  of 
the  human  spirit,  the  testimony  of  human  reason,  the  truth  of  human 
experience,  and  the  results  of  scientific  experiment  as  its  basis  of  edu- 
cation."3 

1.  The  Index  of  October  23rd,  1884,  announces  the  completion  of  the  First 
Spiritual  Temple  in  Boston.  The  building,  whose  cost  is  about  250,000  dollars,  or 
^52,000,  includes  a  main  hall  for  500  people,  besides  small  halls  for  lectures, 
schools  and  other  purposes. 

2.  See  the  Proceedings  of  the  Congress  of  Free-Thinkers,  held  at  Brussels  in 
1880:  Mr.  L.  Rawson's  Report. 

3.  Here  is  the  first  article  of  the  constitution  of  the  American  Spiritualist 
Association :  "The  objects  and  aims  of  this  association  are  to  study  Spiritualism  in 
its  scientific,  philosophical  and  religious  aspects,  and  to  teach  its  truths  as  we  learn 
them  ;  to  maintain  high  and  pure  principles  on  all  vital  questions  of  practical  life  and 
duty;  to  seek  for  the  best  spiritual  culture  and  the  most  harmonious  character." 
The  same  document  proclaims  the  indestructibility  of  the  soul,  the  possibility  of 
entering  into  communication  with  Spirits,  by  the  intervention  of  privileged  but  not 
infallible  individuals,  the  universality  and  immutability  of  the  laws  of  Nature,  the 
necessity  of  placing  morality  before  faith  and  conduct  before  belief,  and  finally,  the 
continuity  of  progress  in  the  Universe. 


202  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF    ETHICS. 

All  these  advanced-guards  of  American  religious  life  have  been 
represented,  simultaneously  or  in  turn,  on  the  Committee  of  the  Free 
Religious  Association :  the  Unitarians  by  the  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage, 
W.  C.  Gannett,  John  Weiss,  John  J.  Sargent,  &c. ;  the  Transcend- 
entalists  by  Emerson  and  Colonel  Higginson;  the  Quakers  by  Lucretia 
Mott,  who  died  in  1882,  at  the  age  of  eighty;  the  Spiritualists  by 
Robert  Dale  Owen;  the  German  Materialists  by  Mr.  Schunemann- 
Pott ;  and  the  Reformed  Jews  by  the  Rabbi  Isaac  Wise,  &c.  It  will 
be  seen,  by  this  genuine  mosaic  of  religious  opinions,  how  widely  the 
action  of  that  Society  extends.  We  may  add  that  on  several  occasions 
it  has  received  messages  of  sympathy  and  encouragement  from  the 
Brahmoists  of  India  by  the  intervention  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  and 
Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar. 

Doubtless,  practical  minds  that  have  neither  the  leisure  nor  the 
taste  to  investigate  religious  questions;  Conservatives  who,  through 
distrust  of  the  unknown,  remain  faithful  to  the  beliefs  of  their  fathers; 
sceptics  who  see  in  worship  only  an  element  of  social  life  necessary  for 
the  education  of  the  young  and  for  the  celebration  of  domestic  solem- 
nities— in  a  word,  the  great  majority  of  the  nation,  remain,  and  will 
for  a  long  time  remain,  attached  to  the  different  forms  of  positive 
Christianity.  Without  being  held  in  such  high  esteem  as  in  former 
ages,  ecclesiastical  functions  still  figure  in  the  first  rank  of  the  liberal 
professions.  According  to  the  Census  of  1870,  there  existed  in  the 
United  States  72,000  congregations,  or  one  for  every  529  inhabitants. 
The  value  of  the  property  belonging  to  them  was  estimated  at  upwards 
of  forty  millions  sterling,  irrespective  of  annual  contributions.  In  the 
rich  congregations  of  large  towns,  it  is  not  rare  to  find  ministers  in 
receipt  of  a  salary  ranging  from  two  to  three  thousand  pounds  a  year.1 
The  proportion  of  persons  attending  public  worship  has  continued  to 
increase,  if  we  may  rely  upon  the  statistics  furnished  by  the  Rev.  R. 
Spears,  according  to  which  the  aggregate  of  American  Churches  con- 
stituted in  1775  but  one  member  in  sixteen  of  the  inhabitants;  in 
1792,  one  in  eighteen;  in  1825,  one  in  fourteen;  in  1853,  one  in 
seven  ;  in  i860,  one  in  five;  and,  finally,  in  1875,  nearly  one  to  every 

I.  At  New  York  the  Revs.  Dix  and  Potter  (Episcopalians)  each  receive  12,000 
dollars  per  annum  ;  the  Rev.  John  Hall  (Presbyterian)  15,000  {Index,  21st  April, 
1881).  The  Rev.  Ward  Beecher  (Congregationalist),  of  Brooklyn,  receives  20,000 
or  upwards  of  four  thousand  pounds  (Inqtiirer  of  Feb.  3rd,  18S3). 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  203 

two.1  I  must  add,  however,  that  an  article,  published  by  The  Nation, 
of  the  29th  of  November,  1883,  makes  certain  reserves  with  respect 
to  these  figures.  Since,  1850,  according  to  this  article,  the  increase 
of  population  has  been  116  per  cent.,  whilst  the  number  of  persons 
belonging  to  the  Churches  has  increased  at  the  rate  of  185  per  cent. 
It  is  true  that  many  congregations,  as  The  Nation  observes,  reckon 
to-day  the  children  in  the  statistics  of  their  members. 

However  this  may  be,  even  among  the  most  orthodox  sects,  the 
Utilitarian  tendency,  which  has  created  Free  Religion,  is  becoming 
more  and  more  observable.  Tocqueville  remarked  some  time  since, 
that  instead  of  insisting  upon  the  other  life,  American  preachers  turned 
constantly  to  the  earth,  and  had  so  to  speak  great  difficulty  in  detach- 
ing their  gaze  therefrom.  If  one  reads  to-day  the  American  journals 
of  Monday  the  report  of  the  principal  sermons  preached  the  preceding 
day  by  the  ministers  of  the  different  sects,  he  will  be  surprised  to  see 
the  small  place  which  theology  occupies  compared  with  morals.  The 
old  Calvinistic  theology  is  nowhere  taught  in  its  integrity.  Even  the 
flames  of  hell  have  become  an  argument  in  bad  taste,  which  is  willingly 
left  to  Revival  preachers  and  missionaries  of  the  Far  West.  "A 
heathen,  desirous  to  learn  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,"  recently 
wrote  a  contributor  to  the  North  American  Review,  in  an  article  on 
The  Religion  of  the  day,  "  might  attend  the  best  of  our  churches  for  a 
whole  year  and  not  hear  one  word  of  the  torments  of  Hell  or  the  anger 
of  an  offended  Deity ;  and  not  enough  of  the  Fall  of  man  or  the 
sacrificial  sufferings  of  Christ  to  offend  the  most  bigotted  disciple  of 
Evolution.  Listening  and  observing  for  himself,  he  would  infer  that 
the  way  of  salvation  consisted  in  declaring  his  faith  in  a  few  abstract 
doctrines,  which  both  preacher  and  hearer  seem  quite  ready  to  explain 
away  as  far  as  possible ;  become  a  regular  attendant  at  church  and 
church  sociables;  put  something  into  the  contribution-box  every  Sun- 
day, and  in  every  way  behave  as  much  as  possible  like  his  neighbours." 

I.  It  would  be  interesting  to  ascertain  in  what  proportion  these  gains  are  shared 
by  the  different  sects.  According  to  an  article  "Religion  in  America,"  published 
in  the  North  American  Review  of  January,  1876,  the  Churches  stood  as  follows 
in  the  order  of  importance  about  the  year  1780  :  1st,  Congregationalists ;  2nd, 
Baptists;  3rd,  Episcopalians;  4th,  Presbyterians;  5th,  Reformed  Germans;  6th, 
Reformed  Church  of  Holland  ;  7th,  Catholics.  According  to  the  Census  of  1S70, 
however,  they  stand  thus:  1st,  Methodists;  2nd,  Baptists;  3rd,  Presbyterians; 
4th,  Catholics ;  5th,  Christians ;  6th,  Lutherans ;  7th,  Congregationalists  ;  8th, 
Episcopalians. 


204  FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE    RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

Some  three  or  four  years  ago,  Colonel  Ingersol1  having  uttered  a 
violent  philippic  against  the  American  Churches,  one  of  the  most 
respected  chiefs  of  the  Republican  party,  Thurlow  Tweed,  replied  to 
the  attacks  by  saying,  "  Our  clergymen  no  longer  emphasize  the  gloomy 
sides  of  theology  as  formerly.  At  the  present  day  their  ministry  is  a 
ministry  of  peace,  charity,  and  benevolence.  This  generation  is  learn- 
ing to  love  and  serve  rather  than  to  dread  our  Creator  and  Lord." 

There  is  at  present  a  party  in  all  the  Protestant  denominations 
whose  object,  is  to  enlarge,  interpret  and  extend  the  field  of  their 

I.  Colonel  Ingersoll  speaks  or  writes  in  a  "smart,"  flippant  and  sometimes 
coarse  style  ;  and  unfortunately  he  does  not  possess  the  dimmest  conception  of  the 
origin  and  true  significance  of  the  legendary  and  other  Biblical  stories  which  he 
ridicules.  This  is  strikingly  shown  in  his  lecture  entitled  '•'■Mistakes  of  Moses" 
What,  as  landmarks  of  the  long  ago,  is  full  of  interest  to  the  scholar  and  thinker, 
by  the  mere  negation  of  orthodox  literalism,  he  treats  with  contempt.  His  method 
is  that  of  Voltaire,  and  though  he  puts  certain  inconsistencies  of  the  orthodox  world 
in  a  striking  and  forcible  manner,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  really  advances 
serious  religious  thought.  In  the  lecture  in  question,  for  instance,  he  introduces 
the  following  imaginary  dialogue  in  illustration  of  the  importance  religious  people 
attach  to  mere  belief.  The  scene  is  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and  the  recording  angel 
or  " secretary "  says  to  the  soul  of  a  man  :—"  Where  are  you  from?"  "I  am 
from  the  world."  "Yes,  sir.  What  kind  of  a  man  were  you?"  "Well,  I  don't 
like  to  talk  about  myself."  "  But  you  have  to.  What  kind  of  a  man  were  you  ?" 
"Well,  I  was  a  good  fellow;  I  loved  my  wife,  I  loved  my  children.  My  home 
was  my  heaven  ;  my  fireside  was  my  paradise,  and  to  sit  there  and  see  the  lights 
and  shadows  falling  on  the  faces  of  those  I  love,  that  to  me  was  a  perpetual  joy.  I 
never  gave  one  of  them  a  solitary  moment  of  pain.  I  don't  owe  a  dollar  in  the 
world,  and  I  left  enough  to  pay  my  funeral  expenses  and  keep  the  wolf  of  want 
from  the  door  of  the  house  I  loved.  That  is  the  kind  of  a  man  I  am."  "Did 
you  belong  to  any  church  ?"  "I  did  not.  They  were  too  narrow  for  me.  They 
were  always  expecting  to  be  happy  simply  because  somebody  else  was  to  be 
damned."  "Well,  did  you  believe  that  rib  story?"  "  What  rib  story  ?  Do  you 
mean  that  Adam  and  Eve  business  ?  No,  I  did  not.  To  tell  you  the  God's  truth, 
that  was  a  little  more  than  I  could  swallow."  "To  hell  with  him!  Next. 
Where  are  you  from?"  "I'm  from  the  world  too."  "Do  you  belong  to  any 
church  ?"  "  Yes,  sir,  and  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association."  "What  is 
your  business?"  "  Cashier  in  a  bank."  "Did  you  ever  run  off  with  any  of  the 
money?"  "I  don't  like  to  tell,  sir."  "Well,  but  you  have  to?"  "Yes,  sir;  I 
did."  "  What  kind  of  a  bank  did  you  have?"  "  A  savings  bank."  "  How  much 
did  you  run  off  with?"  "One  hundred  thousand  dollars."  "  Did  you  take  any- 
thing else  along  with  you?"  "Yes,  sir."  "What?"  "I  took  my  neighbour's 
wife."  "  Did  you  have  a  wife  and  children  of  your  own?"  "Yes,  sir."  "And 
you  deserted  them?"  "Oh,  yes;  but  such  was  my  confidence  in  God  that  I 
believed  he  would  take  care  of  them."  "Have  you  heard  of  them  since ?"  "No, 
sir."  "  Did  you  believe  that  rib  story?"  "Ah,  bless  your  soul,  yes  !  I  believed 
all  of  it,  sir  ;  I  often  used  to  be  sorry  that  there  were  not  harder  stories  yet  in  the 
Bible,  so  that  I  could  show  what  my  faith  could  do."  "  You  believed  it,  did  you?" 
"Yes,  with  all  my  heart."     "  Give  him  a  harp." — Translator. 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   ETHICS.  205 

operations.  With  the  Episcopalians  who  long  since  rendered  the  use 
of  the  Athanasian  Creed  optional  in  their  liturgy,  this  tendency  has 
brought  on  the  schism  of  the  Episcopal  Reformed  Church,  which  is 
directed  as  much  against  the  Broad  Church  party  as  against  the  ritual- 
istic practices  of  the  High  Church  section.  Among  the  Methodists 
and  Presbyterians  the  tendency  is  shown,  as  indeed  among  their  co- 
religionists of  the  British  Isles,  by  the  numerous  trials  for  heresy  brought 
before  their  Conferences  and  Synods,  in  relation  to  both  ministers  and 
congregations.  Even  the  popular  Baptist  body  is  not  escaping  the 
influence  of  this  liberalizing  movement,  at  least  in  its  most  advanced 
section  :  the  Christians  of  the  New  Connection  and  the  Campbellites, 
or  Disciples,  who  have  always  been  Liberals,  or  at  least  Arminians  in 
theology.  "  We  are  glad  to  learn  by  a  recent  letter  from  America — 
wrote  Mr.  Spears  in  1876 — that  the  Disciples  are  becoming  more  and 
more  liberal  among  themselves  and  towards  others.  It  is  not  unlikely 
that  the  'Christian'  Connection  and  the  Disciples  may  soon  form  one 
grand  Christian  organization  of  about  5,000  churches,  called  by  the 
Christian  name  and  based  on  nothing  but  the  Christian  scriptures." 1 

But  the  progress  of  ideas  is  most  perceptible  among  the  Congre- 
gationalists,  who  have  no  central  authority  to  maintain  doctrine  and 
discipline  in  their  Churches.  The  most  celebrated  and  popular  of 
their  preachers,  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  said  in  a  sermon  on 
Religious  Doubt,  preached  in  1881  :  "let  no  man  count  himself  an 
infidel  who  believes  that  righteousness  is  the  great  end  of  human  life, 
and  who  longs  for  a  more  perfect  reduction  of  his  will  to  the  moral 
sense."  Might  we  not  suppose  these  to  be  the  words  of  Mr.  Potter 
or  Mr.  Adler  or  even  of  the  convention  of  Milwaukee  ? 

So  great  is  the  present  popularity  of  Mr.  Beecher  that  several 
policemen  are  required  to  keep  order  in  the  crowd  which  collects 
round  the  doors  of  his  vast  "Tabernacle"  twice  every  Sunday.  With 
a  view  to  hear  one  of  his  sermons  I  have  myself  been  obliged  to  wait 
halfan-hour  in  the  open  air  during  a  pelting  rain,  and  even  then  only 
succeeded  in  getting  a  seat  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  building.  The 
interior  of  his  Church,  which  will  contain  several  thousand  persons, 

I.  Rise  and  Progress  of  Unitarian  Doctrines  in  Modern  Times,  p.  33.  Among 
the  American  sects  which  have  renounced  the  Trinity,  Mr.  Spears  mentions  also 
the  Christadelphians,  the  Adventists,  and  the  Followers  of  John  Winnebrenner, 
who,  some  thirty  years  ago,  gathered  together  fifty  thousand  adherents  into  a  com- 
munion called  the  Church  of  God,  &c. 


206  FREE   RELIGION   AND   THE    RELIGION    OF   ETHICS. 

is  extremely  simple  in  common  with  all  Congregational  Churches. 
There  is  no  religious  symbolism,  not  even  a  cross ;  the  only  ornamen- 
tation being  the  flowers  round  the  pulpit.  The  back  of  the  building 
is  occupied  by  an  immense  organ  whose  roll  and  swell  accompany 
the  voices  of  an  admirably  composed  choir.  The  congregation  join 
in  the  singing  of  the  hymns  with  a  fervour  which  no  one  would  ex- 
pect in  such  a  vast  gathering.  The  mere  letting  of  the  front  seats 
brings  in,  I  was  told,  from  seven  to  eight  thousand  pounds  a  year. 

Mr.  Beecher  is  an  old  man  with  long  white  hair,  of  middle  height 
and  a  tendency  to  corpulence ;  but  in  spite  of  his  seventy  years,  he 
displays  activity  and  vigour,  whilst  he  is  possessed  of  a  powerful  and 
singularly  pathetic  voice.1  He  long  since  freed  himself  from  dog- 
matic Calvinism ;  recently,  however,  he  seems  to  have  assumed  a 
more  aggressive  attitude  towards  the  theology  still  literally  accepted 
by  a  certain  number  of  congregations.  Thus,  in  a  recent  article  in 
The  North  American  Review,  on  the  "  Progress  of  Ideas  in  the 
Church,"  he  develops  this  threefold  thesis  :  that  religious  activity,  so 
far  from  diminishing,  is  increasing  every  day  in  America,  as  may  be 
seen  by  the  multiplication  of  new  Churches;  that  this  activity  em- 
braces a  world  of  influences  unknown  to  the  Puritans ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  the  various  Christian  sects  are 
everywhere  disappearing.  He  then  makes  a  direct  attack  upon  the 
theology  of  the  Middle  Ages,  more  particularly  with  regard  to  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Fall  and  Predestination,  which  he  treats  thus  :  "  The 
present  generation  can  remember  the  time  when  these  hideous 
doctrines  were  widely  and  vigorously  preached.  The  explosions  of 
indignation  which  they  called  forth  were  looked  upon  as  a  proof  that 
the  heart  of  man  was  in  a  state  of  revolt  against  God.  They  may 
be  preached  still,  but  it  is  in  apologetic  terms,  and  no  longer  with 
that  tone  of  authority  which  carries  conviction  :  they  rather  defend 

i.  The  second  time  I  saw  him  was  in  the  autumn  of  1880,  at  a  political  meeting, 
where  he  spoke  on  behalf  of  the  candidature  of  Mr.  Garfield,  who  was  seeking  the 
Presidential  chair.  Being  on  a  balcony  of  the  Fifth  Avenue,  a  few  days  after  this 
meeting,  in  order  to  witness  a  grand  review  of  the  Volunteers  of  New  York,  I 
suddenly  saw  the  eager  masses  on  the  pavement  below  salute  with  their  applause 
one  of  the  principal  regiments  of  Brooklyn.  On  horseback,  by  the  side  of  the 
colonel,  there  was  a  gentleman  dressed  in  black,  with  his  sword  at  his  side,  who  was 
saluting  right  and  left  in  response  to  the  hurrahs  of  the  crowd.  It  was  Mr.  Beecher, 
who  was  fulfilling  the  duties,  or  rather  was  present  officially,  as  the  chaplain  of  the 
regiment  of  his  district. 


FREE   RELIGION    AND   THE   RELIGION    OF    ETHICS.  207 

than  affirm  themselves.  Speaking  generally,  they  lie  at  the  bottom  of 
the  pulpit  like  a  corpse  in  the  sepulchre." 

The  criticism  which  this  rejection  of  the  old  theology  called  forth 
from  certain  of  his  colleagues,  led  Mr.  Beecher  to  tender  his  resigna- 
tion as  a  member  of  the  Congregational  body  in  the  autumn  of  1882. 
But  the  Brooklyn  Association  of  Congregational  Ministers  unani- 
mously refused  to  accept  it  by  passing  a  resolution  stating  that  "  the 
full  and  proffered  exposition  of  doctrinal  views  which  he  has  made  at 
this  meeting,  indicates  the  propriety  of  his  continued  membership  in 
this  or  any  other  Congregational  Association."  This  incident,  which 
made  a  great  noise,  is  not  only  a  striking  sign  of  the  progress  realized 
in  the  ideas  of  American  Protestantism,  but  it  is  also  calculated  to 
promote  the  spirit  of  freedom  among  preachers  and  congregations  in 
the  sects  which  remain  nominally  faithful  to  orthodoxy. 

Even  Catholicism,  which,  though  unable  to  change  its  dogmas,  seeks 
to  enlarge  its  influence,  above  all  by  its  good  works,  by  the  extent  of 
its  charities,  by  the  excellence  of  its  day  and  boarding  schools,  and 
by  co-operating,  as  occasion  requires,  with  the  clergy  of  the  Protestant 
Churches  in  the  common  work  of  some  moral  or  philanthropic 
undertaking.1 

1.  The  Roman  Church,  which  is  placed  in  the  United  States  on  a  footing  of 
absolute  equality  with  the  other  sects,  has  not  been  able  to  wholly  disregard  the 
bonds  of  spiritual  confraternity,  which  are  superior  to  all  dogmatic  divergences. 
For  instance,  we  see  from  the  biography  of  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  that  at  the  time  of 
his  ordination  in  1830,  in  the  Federal  Street  Unitarian  Church  at  Boston,  the 
ceremony,  presided  over  by  Channing,  was  honoured  by  the  presence  of  ministers 
belonging  to  the  Congregational,  Evangelical,  Baptist,  Universalist,  Presbyterian 
and  Catholic  communions. 


CHAPTER      X. 


COSMISM  AND  THE  RELIGION  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Persistence  of  Metaphysical  Speculations  in  the  United  States — Importance  given 
to  religious  questions  in  the  press  and  in  literature — Clubs  and  Philosophical 
Associations — The  Hegelian  Academy  at  Concord — Religious  Fermentation  in 
the  West — Symptoms  Characteristic  of  Changing  Beliefs — Aspirations  for  a  New 
Religious  Synthesis  extending  even  to  the  ranks  of  the  Free  Religionists — Eclipse 
of  the  Transcendental  school — Progress  of  Evolution  in  the  United  States  ;  the 
religious  character  it  has  assumed  there — Professor  J.  Fiske's  Cosmic  Philosophy 
— Cosmism  according  to  Mr.  W.  Potter  :  "  Faith  and  Confidence  in  the  Universe" 
— The  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage  and  the  Religion  of  Evolution — Cosmism  regarded 
as  the  crowning  result  of  Christianity — Tendency  of  the  American  mind  to  trans- 
form Philosophy  into  Religion — Quotations  from  the  writings  of  O.  B.  Frothing- 
ham,  F.  A.  Abbot,  and  W.  Gannett — The  Theology  of  Evolution  in  the 
orthodox  congregations — Tocqueville's  Prediction  that  American  Democracy 
would  end  in  Pantheism. 


Are  we  to  conclude  from  what  has  been  just  stated  that  America 
is  on  the  eve  of  sacrificing  theology  and  even  metaphysics  on 
the  altar  of  Positivism,  and  instituting  a  religion  like  that  dreamed 
of  by  Comte,  having  for  its  objects  humanity  and  earthly  life 
instead  of  God  and  a  future  life  ?  This  conclusion  would  be  rash. 
There  are,  undoubtedly,  in  the  United  States  a  certain  number 
of  persons  systematically  hostile  to  every  ontological  conception,  as 
well  as  to  every  religious  idea,  who  proscribe  even  all  mention 
of  the  Absolute  and  the  Unknowable,  because  they  see  in  such 
phrases  an  approach  to  theology.  Some  confine  themselves  to 
referring  to  the  primordial  properties  of  matter  for  the  explanation 
of  all  phenomena.  Others  hold  still  to  the  criticisims  of  Voltaire  and 
Hobbes,  without  suspecting  that  the  progress  of  science  has  pro- 
foundly modified  the  conditions  of  the  problem.  It  is  this  class 
which  is  represented  by  the  Truth  Seeker  of  New  York  and  the 
Investigator  of  Boston.  In  the  latter  city,  they  have  for  their  head- 
quarters an  edifice  erected  to  the  memory  of  an  American  member  of 
the  French  Convention — Thomas  Paine — whose  philosophical  writ- 
ings, though  completely  forgotten  in  France,  still  play  in  the  religious 
controversies  of  the  United  States  a  part  equally  exaggerated  by  reason 


210  COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION. 

of  the  indignation  of  their  adversaries  and  the  enthusiasm  of  their  ad- 
mirers. But  Positivism,  properly  so  called,  whether  in  the  sober  and 
severe  acceptation  which  Littre  has  given  to  the  doctrine  of  Auguste 
Comte,  or  under  the  more  embellished  form  of  Comttsm,  which  has 
obtained  considerable  success  in  England,  has  but  few  followers  in 
the  United  States,  notwithstanding  the  favour  which  the  positive 
methods  enjoy  there.  If,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  "  Religion  of  Hu- 
manity "  predominates  among  the  followers  of  Mr.  Potter  and  Pro- 
fessor Adler,  as  well  as  among  the  Free  Religionists,  it  is  not  associated 
with  Comtist  dogmatism,  but  is  in  the  form  which  Mr.  W.  Frey  has 
given  to  it — that  is,  without  the  exclusion  of  a  belief  in  the  mysterious 
Power  of  which  the  universe  is  a  manifestation.  The  American  shows 
no  predilection  for  fasting,  even  in  metaphysics.  Never  has  specu- 
lation taken  higher  flights  than  in  these  later  times  in  the  United 
States.  There  are,  outside  of  the  religious  press, — even  in  localities 
of  secondary  culture, — journals  whose  title  alone  is  sufficiently  signifi- 
cant, such  as  The  Platonist,  of  Osceola,  Mo. ;  The  Journal  of 
Speculative  Philosophy,  of  St.  Louis,  devoted  to  the  advocacy  of  the 
doctrines  of  Hegel ;  The  Religio-Philosophical  Journal,  of  Chicago, 
which  printed  lately,  it  is  said,  nine  thousand  copies. 

After  having  shown  in  The  Index  of  February  23rd,  1882,  that  the 
severest  phase  of  the  struggle  is  over  for  the  advocates  of  Liberal 
ideas,  Mrs.  Sarah  A.  Underwood  points  out  for  instance  that  religious 
speculation  has  never  been  more  free  and  active.  "  The  newspaper 
most  prompt  to  report  any  new  departure  in  the  religious  world,"  she 
wrote,  "  is  apt  to  be  the  newspaper  with  the  largest  daily  circulation. 
Our  magazines  discuss  more  leisurely  and  with  greater  dignity  the 
grave  religious  questions  of  the  hour.  Our  reviews  are  mainly  devoted 
to  discussing  religious  issues.  Our  new  evangelists  are  making  religion, 
more  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the  leading  topic  in 
literature.  Even  the  romance  writers  weave  religious  discussions  into 
both  warp  and  woof  of  their  stories." 

From  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  from  Chicago  to  Cincinnati, 
every  city  of  consequence  has  its  metaphysical  club  or  institute.  The 
most  celebrated  is,  unquestionably,  the  School  of  Philosophy,  opened 
at  Concord,  Mass.,  in  1879,  by  Mr.  Bronson  Alcott,  with  a  vigour  that 
does  honour  to  the  eighty  years  of  this  venerable  neo-Pythagorean,  as 
well  as  to  the  vegetable  diet  of  which  he  has,  from  principle,  been  a 


COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   EVOLUTION.  211 

faithful  adherent  for  more  than  forty  years.  The  School  at  Concord 
seems  an  attempt  to  reproduce,  in  the  midst  of  American  society  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  the  garden  of  the  Academy  where  Plato  and 
his  disciples  discoursed  under  the  shade  of  the  olive-trees.  Every 
summer  in  the  month  of  July,  an  intelligent  company,  drawn  from  all 
points  of  the  Union  to  the  little  town  of  Concord,  meet  at  Mr.  Alcott's 
place, — the  Orchard  House, — where  are  given  courses,  or  rather  free 
lectures,  upon  philosophy.  The  principal  difference  from  the  Greek 
Academy — wholly  to  the  advantage  of  Concord — is  that  the  door  is 
not  closed  against  the  fair  sex,  who  largely  profit  by  it,  if  the  reports 
may  be  believed,  which  attribute  to  them  two-thirds  of  the  attendance, 
estimated  in  1882  at  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons.  There  are 
two  lectures  a  day,  one  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  other  at 
half-past  seven  in  the  evening.  In  the  interval,  the  students,  male 
and  female,  arrange  their  notes,  take  their  meals  at  home,  or  walk  in 
the  pine  woods,  exchanging  their  ideas  upon  the  grave  problems  of 
our  destiny.  Among  the  principal  lecturers,  besides  Mr.  Alcott,  are 
Dr.  Jones,  the  founder  of  the  Platonic  Clubs  in  Illinois ;  Professor 
Harris,  editor  of  The  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy  ;  Mrs.  Howe; 
William  Henry  Channing ;  Professor  Emory,  etc.  Emerson  himself 
was  heard  there  in  1880. 

These  names  sufficiently  show  that  the  philosophy  of  Hegel  prevails 
almost  exclusively  at  Concord,  although  the  founders  of  the  school 
proclaimed  the  most  absolute  liberty  of  opinion.  It  is  a  strange 
phenomenon  of  the  religious  movement  of  the  United  States,  this 
revival  of  the  Hegelian  doctrine,  at  the  time  when,  in  Germany,  the 
death  of  Professor  Rosenkranz  has  vacated  the  last  chair  devoted  to 
pure  Hegelianism.  Such  has  been  the  increasing  success  of  the  insti- 
tution founded  by  Mr.  Alcott  that  the  orthodox  have  felt  obliged  to 
establish  a  competitor  by  founding,  two  years  ago,  on  the  same  basis, 
at  Greenwood,  near  New  York,  an  "  Encampment  of  Christian  Phi- 
losophy." 

Among  the  less  cultivated  population  of  the  West,  the  instability  of 
belief  has  naturally  taken  a  more  violent  and  aggressive  form.  A 
member  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  reported,  at  the  general 
meeting  in  1881,  that  there  were  in  Kansas,  even  in  the  smallest 
towns,  groups  of  Liberals  not  only  unchurched,  but  openly  hostile  to 
all  existing  forms  of  religious  organization.     At  the  same  session 


212  COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION. 

another  speaker  (a  Spiritualist)  told  of  the  existence  of  a  hundred 
meetings  in  the  open  air  in  the  Western  States,  independent  of  all 
sects,  of  people  who  came  together  "  to  say  before  God  what  they 
believed  in  their  souls  to  be  the  truth," — labourers  from  their  farms, 
men  of  business  forsaking  their  offices,  women  leaving  their  house- 
hold cares,  all  "drawn  by  an  inward  hunger  for  spiritual  nourish- 
ment." These  two  statements  have  nothing  contradictory  about 
them ;  they  rather  complement  each  other.  They  equally  prove  the 
thirst  for  a  new  faith  among  those  who  are  no  longer  satisfied  with  the 
old  religious  forms.  It  is,  in  some  sort,  the  last  term  of  the  disin- 
tegration, or  of  the  breaking  up,  which,  as  its  goal,  the  spirit  of 
Protestantism  has  never  ceased  to  pursue  into  the  very  heart  of 
dogmatic  Churches  and  confessions  of  faith.  But  it  might  also  be 
the  inevitable  transition  between  two  currents  of  belief. 

Coming  side  by  side  with  this  intellectual  fermentation,  the 
tendency  to  relegate  theology  to  the  second  place  in  religious  activity, 
even  in  certain  orthodox  Churches,  which  has  found  its  most  complete 
expression  in  the  platform  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  may 
well  be  considered  a  symptom  of  the  religious  interregnum,  long  ago 
predicted  by  Emerson.  It  is  probable,  and  we  may  rejoice  at  it,  that 
religion  will  preserve  in  future  the  eminently  practical  and  humani- 
tarian character  which  has  come  to  distinguish  it,  more  and  more,  in 
the  United  States.  But  men  will  always  have  a  tendency  to  group 
themselves  according  to  their  beliefs ;  and  we  already  hear,  even  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  the  day  predicted  when 
a  new  religious  synthesis  shall  present  itself  for  acceptance,  by  the 
force  of  evidence  alone,  to  all  the  adherents  of  "Free  Religion." 

"  We  do  not  contend,"  said  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Free 
Religious  Association,  in  its  fourth  annual  report,  "  that  the  religious 
sentiment  is  historically  exhausted,  and  that  it  has  uttered  the  last 
word  of  absolute  religion.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  of  opinion  that 
the  organ  of  the  religious  consciousness  is  as  full  of  life  to-day  as  it 
has  ever  been,  and  we  think  that  the  approaching  transformations  in 
the  religious  condition  of  the  world,  whatever  their  nature,  will  be 
produced,  not  by  mechanical  combinations  of  the  best  elements  of 
the  religions  of  the  past,  but  by  a  regular,  organic  and  progressive 
development."  Mr.  F.  E.  Abbot,  again,  wrote,  in  1872,  in  a  small 
pamphlet,  entitled  The  God  of  Science :  "The  world  for  half  a  century 


COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION.  213 

has  been  groping  blindly  to  find  this  greatly-needed  philosophy  of 
science.  .  .  .  That  philosophy  has  not  yet  come.  But  when  it 
comes,  as  come  it  must  and  will,  it  will  create,  sooner  or  later, 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  a  unity  of  intellectual  convictions 
which  has  never  yet  been  paralleled,  even  in  the  boasted  "  ages  of 
faith," — not,  of  course,  a  unity  of  all  opinions,  but  a  unity  of  funda- 
mental principles  and  methods  of  thinking.  And  when  it  comes, — 
a  philosophy  of  science  whose  basis  shall  be  solid  truth,  and  whose 
philosophy  shall  be  unfettered  reason, — then,  I  most  profoundly 
believe,  will  the  enlightened  idea  of  God  be  so  firmly  fixed  in  the 
human  mind  that  Christianity  and  Atheism  shall  become  alike  mere 
traditions  of  the  past." 

Is  it  possible  now  to  foresee  whence  will  be  drawn  the  elements  of 
this  new  theology?  According  to  Mr.  Potter,  the  existing  rival 
schools  of  intuition  and  observation  will  both  have  a  part  to  play  in 
the  formation  of  the  philosophy  destined  to  perfect  the  work  of  "  Free 
Religion."  We  share  with  Mr.  Potter  the  profound  conviction  that 
intuition  will  have  its  word  to  utter  in  the  future  development  of 
psychology,  and  we  are  far  from  contesting  the  happy  and  durable 
influence  which  Transcendentalism  has  exercised  upon  the  public 
mind  of  the  American  people.  We  cannot,  however,  repress  the 
question  whether,  as  a  system  of  metaphysics  and  religion,  the  school 
of  German  Idealism  may  not  have  run  its  course  in  the  United  States 
as  it  has  in  Europe  ?  Almost  all  its  old  champions  have  remained 
loyal  to  the  faith  of  their  youth.  Emerson,  Johnson,  Margaret  Fuller, 
Ripley,  Lydia  Child,  died,  as  they  had  lived,  in  the  Transcendental 
faith.  Those  who  survive,  Higginson,  Wasson,  Samuel  Longfellow, 
and  Henry  Channing,  use  to-day  the  same  language  they  did  forty 
years  ago,  with  a  conviction  and  enthusiasm  which  neither  age,  nor  the 
friction  of  life,  nor  even  the  progress  of  positive  science  has  cooled. 
But  their  ranks  are  thinning  more  and  more ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  momentary  fashion  of  Hegelianism  at  Concord,  new  recruits  do 
not  come  to  take  the  place  of  those  who  have  gone  to  seek  in  another 
world  the  confirmation  of  their  hopes. 

Of  a  considerable  number  of  congregations  founded  by  the  Tran- 
scendental movement,  there  remained,  lately,  only  the  Church  of 
Samuel  Johnson,  at  Lynn,  Mass.  Even  this  probably  owed  its  longevity 
only  to  the  personal  influence  of  its  minister,  and  it  is  to  be  feared 


214  COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION. 

that  it  may  have  disappeared  with  him.  In  Boston,  the  survivors  of 
the  Twenty-eighth  Congregation  meet  every  Sunday  in  the  spacious 
edifice  gratefully  erected  to  the  memory  of  Theodore  Parker.  But,  in 
this  pulpit, — from  which  their  founder  formerly  denounced  the  method 
and  doctrines  of  Sensationalism, — the  fathers  of  the  church  whom 
they  quote  and  comment  upon  to-day  are  Spencer  and  Huxley,  Dal- 
ton  and  Tyndall,  George  Lewes  and  Claude  Bernard.  This  is  a  sign 
of  the  times. 

It  is,  indeed,  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  in  the  form  it  has  assumed 
from  the  recent  generalizations  of  Herbert  Spencer,  which  has  rapidly 
become  the  dominant  philosophy  of  Americans.  Recently,  one  of 
the  present  editors  of  The  Index,  Mr.  B.  F.  Underwood,  stated  that 
this  doctrine  was  received  by  the  majority  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association.  In  the  United  States,  however,  even  more  than  in 
England,  it  has  assumed  the  metaphysical  form  of  Monism,  which, 
while  foreign  to  the  old  quarrel  between  the  Materialists  and  the 
advocates  of  a  spiritual  philosophy,  is  as  profoundly  religious  in  its 
conclusions  as  it  is  faithful  to  the  positive  method  in  its  premises. 

Its  introduction  into  America  is  attributed  to  Professor  John  Fiske, 
a  personal  friend  of  Herbert  Spencer,  who,  under  the  name  of  "Cos- 
mic Philosophy,"  set  about  developing  the  synthesis  of  evolution,  by 
insisting  upon  the  possibility  of  combinations  of  matter  and  force  as 
much  superior  to  humanity  as  humanity  is  to  the  crystal  or  the  alga, 
and  by  emphasizing  the  existence  of  an  indefinable  Power  "  eternally 
and  universally  manifested  in  Nature."  This  doctrine  rapidly  formed 
a  school  as  Cosmism,  an  appellation  due  to  the  happy  blending  of 
the  positive  method  of  Spencer  with  the  naturalistic  idealism  of 
Dr.  Strauss  in  its  second  phase,  and  one  which  is  perhaps  destined 
to  become  the  name  of  a  new  faith.  Already  officially  adopted  by 
the  free  congregation  at  Florence,  in  Massachusetts,  it  is  accepted  by 
Mr.  Potter,  the  minister  of  the  New  Bedford  congregation,  and  the 
president  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  as  well  as  by  the  Rev. 
Minot  J.  Savage,  the  most  advanced  Unitarian  minister  of  Boston. 

Mr.  Potter  is  never  weary  of  asserting  that  religion  is  essentially 
the  expression  of  our  relation  to  the  universe :  "Of  religion,  as  thought, 
the  central  idea  is  that  of  man's  relation  to  the  universe  and  to  its  vital 
forces ;  of  religion,  as  feeling,  the  central  sentiment  is  that  of  obliga- 
tion, imposed  on  man  by  this  tie  of  vital  relation ;  of  religion,  as 


COSMISM    AND   THE    RELIGION   OF    EVOLUTION.  215 

practice,  the  centre  of  action  is  man's  effort  to  meet  this  obligation, 
and  thus  to  put  and  keep  himself  in  right  relations  with  the  universe 
and  its  vital  powers.  At  the  same  time,  the  formula  is  only  a  state- 
ment of  facts  pertaining  to  man,  which  the  strictest  scientific  thought 
must  recognize.  In  whatever  way  the  universe  came  into  being  and 
is  sustained,  man  is  in  actual  relation  to  it  and  its  vital  forces.  Of  all 
finite  beings  within  the  range  of  our  knowledge,  he  is  the  culmination 
of  its  vital  processes.  It  is  also  a  fact  that  he  feels  himself  under 
obligation  to  give  service  for  what  he  has  thus  received,  and  that  only 
that  kind  of  conduct  which  shall  put  him  in  right  and  normal  rela- 
tions with  the  universe  of  persons  and  things,  of  which  he  is  a  part, 
can  satisfy  this  inward  sense  of  obligation."1 

This  is  nearly  identical  with  the  definition  of  Fichte,  who  saw  in 
religion  "the  synthesis  of  the  Ego  and  the  non-Ego."  Mr.  Potter, 
however,  desires  to  remain  faithful  to  the  exclusive  use  of  Positive 
methods,  and  though  he  admits  there  is  in  nature,  as  it  reveals  itself 
to  us,*  the  manifestation  of  an  unknown  and  unknowable  Power,  he 
refuses  to  place  this  Power  outside  the  universe,  with  all  its  possibilities 
and  all  its  resources.  On  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
invest  the  Power  in  question  with  a  moral  significance,  or  rather  he 
identifies  it  with  the  moral  law  itself.  Modern  science,  he  says,  has 
shown  in  vain  that  moral  ideas  are  due  to  the  reaction  of  the  environ- 
ment in  which  the  human  organism  is  placed  ;  for  since  man,  as  the 
product  of  the  universe,  possesses  the  conception  of  morality  and 
duty,  these  latter  must  certainly  exist  in  the  universe. 

It  is  clear  that  the  Cosmos  thus  understood  may  become  an  object 
of  real  worship,  and  it  would  ill  become  us  to  cavil  with  Mr.  Potter, 
who,  when  questioned  on  the  nature  of  his  beliefs,  summed  them  up 
in  these  words :  "  Belief  and  trust  in  the  universe.  This  is  the  corner- 
stone of  our  faith.  If  a  new  name  were  wanted  for  those  who  hold  a 
faith  thus  grounded,  why  not  call  them  Cosmians."2 

The  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage,  again,  the  minister  of  an  important 
Unitarian  congregation  in  Boston,  has  made  himself  an  eloquent  and 

1.  The  Index  of  the  5th  of  January,  1882. 

2.  See  The  Index  of  the  30th  of  June,  1881.  In  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Hinckley, 
the  minister  of  the  Free  Religious  Congregation  at  Florence  and  the  present  secre- 
tary of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  the  new  God  is  the  unknown  and  universal 
Power,  acting  by  and  in  all  things  with  superhuman  intelligence  and  love. — 
The  General  Meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  May  the  27th,  1881. 


216  COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION    OF   EVOLUTION. 

indefatigable  apostle  of  evolution  in  his  works,  The  Religion  of  Evolu- 
tion (1876),  The  Morality  of  Evolution  (1880),  and  Belief  in  God 
(1881).  And  the  members  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  who 
heard  him,  at  their  meeting  in  1881,  discourse  upon  the  state  of  con- 
temporary morals,  witnessed  the  curious  spectacle  of  this  Christian 
minister  maintaining  against  a  so-called  Atheist,  Mr.  Felix  Adler,  that 
morals  have  for  their  foundation  social  utility,  and  for  their  origin  the 
experience  acquired  by  the  race.  Still,  if  Mr.  Savage  rejects  the 
idea  of  an  absolute  and  transcendent  morality,  he  none  the  less  admits 
that,  in  the  midst  of  human  variations  as  to  the  rules  of  conduct,  the 
principle  of  a  distinction  between  good  and  evil  as  well  as  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  idea  of  duty  represent  among  men  "  something  constant 
and  immutable  as  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  waves." 

In  his  work  on  The  Religion  of  Evolution,  Mr.  Savage  begins  by 
showing  that  the  progress  of  science  has  given  the  death-blow  to 
almost  all  the  conceptions  of  traditional  theology.1  It  is,  as  he  thinks, 
the  theory  of  evolution  which  will  henceforth  bear  sovereign  rule  in 
philosophy  as  well  as  in  science.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that 
the  marvellous  hypothesis  of  Herbert  Spencer  serves  to  explain  almost 
all  known  facts,  without  being  in  antagonism  with  any,  and  he  goes  so 
far  as  to  characterize  it  as  the  greatest  work  the  mind  of  man  has  ever 
performed. 

But  if  this  philosophy  be  the  last  word  of  science,  what  does  it . 
leave  us  in  the  shape  of  religion  ?  Mr.  Savage  examines  successively 
the  modifications  of  thought  which  the  acceptance  of  evolution  would 
produce  in  the  current  conceptions  of  Christian  theology  and  in 
metaphysics  in  general.  Now,  though  this  method  tends  to  destroy 
the  Biblical  traditions  respecting  the  origin  of  the  universe  and  the 
appearance  of  man,  the  anthropomorphic  idea  of  the  Deity,  the  belief 
in  the  Devil,  the  possibility  of  miracles,  the  acceptance  of  a  special 
revelation,  and  the  popular  conception  of  heaven  and  hell,  it  leaves 
us,  on  the  other  hand,  and  even  places  on  the  most  solid  of  founda- 
tions, our  feelings  of  confidence  and  reverence  in  the  presence  of  that 
mysterious  Power  which  transcends  all  definition,  but  which  reveals 
itself  in  all  phenomena, — the  consciousness  of  a  close  relationship 

1.  The  Religion  of  Evolution  (Boston:  Lockwood,  1876).  See  also  his  other 
works,  The  Morals  of  Evolution  (Boston:  Ellis,  1880);  Belief  in  GW  (Boston: 
Ellis,  1881);  Beliefs  about  Man  (Boston  :  Ellis,  1882). 


COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION.  217 

with  all  the  members  of  the  human  family  and  even  with  all  the  forms 
of  life  in  nature, — the  hope  of  a  future  life  and  the  necessity  of  com- 
plete submission  to  the  moral  law. 

From  the  fact  that  it  excludes  caprice  and  arbitrary  intervention, 
the  philosophy  of  evolution  admits  of  the  reconciliation  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  love  with  the  reign  of  universal  law  in  the  manifestations  of 
the  universe.  It  is  also  the  only  doctrine  which  offers  a  satisfactory 
solution  to  the  problem  presented  by  the  existence  of  evil.  Evil, 
indeed,  is  shown  to  be  merely  a  maladjustment  in  relation  to  the 
conditions  of  physical,  moral  and  intellectual  environment — that  is, 
to  the  laws  of  the  cosmic  order.  It  may  therefore  be  claimed  that 
evil  is  an  essential  condition  of  progress,  either  as,  when  in  nature  it 
acts  through  the  disappearance  of  the  feeblest  to  the  advantage  of 
those  best  fitted  to  survive,  or  when,  as  with  man,  it  presents  itself  as 
the  corrective  of  ignorance  and  misconduct.  "  Even  pain  is  only  a 
signal  marked  danger,  that  is  set  up  along  the  railways,  at  the  switches 
and  crossings  of  human  life.  .  .  .  Pain  is  simply  God  saying : 
'  Get  out  of  danger'  or  '  Get  up  higher.'" 

But  what  becomes  of  Christianity  in  this  scientific  conception  of 
religion  ?  Mr.  Savage  points  out  that  religion  itself  is  subject  to  the 
law  of  evolution  like  all  the  other  manifestations  of  our  moral  and 
intellectual  activity.  It  matters  not  therefore  that  Christianity  is  the 
last  and  most  perfect  system  of  religion ;  since  it  is  a  product  of 
evolution  it  will  be  set  aside  by  evolution.  But  it  is  only  the  super- 
annuated forms  and  the  excrescences  which  will  be  thus  cast  off  by 
evolution ;  this  law  or  process  does  not  effect  what  is  in  its  nature 
permanent  and  universal.  If  the  cosmogony,  the  dogmas,  the  cere- 
monies and  the  ecclesiastical  organizations  of  Christianity  are  doomed 
to  disappear,  it  is  otherwise  with  the  precepts  in  and  through  which 
Jesus  identified  religion  with  morality  and  the  Supreme  Being  with 
universal  life.  Now,  if  these  truths  embody  the  essence  of  Christian- 
ity, whoever  accepts  them  has  a  right  to  retain  the  name  of  Christian, 
and  on  this  point  the  philosophy  of  evolution  merely  continues  the 
work  of  Christ,  which  was  misunderstood  even  by  his  first  disciples. 

In  a  sermon  preached  before  his  congregation  in  1880,1  Mr. 
Savage  speaks  still  more  explicitly  : — 

"All  these  religions  may  be  grouped  under  three  main  classes. 

1.  See  his  work,  The  Morals  of  Evolution,  p.  187. 


218  COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION. 

Whatever  their  manifestation,  however  perfect  or  imperfect,  they  fall 
naturally  into  one  of  these  three.  In  the  first  place  there  is  Paganism, 
that  is  the  worship  of  isolated,  detached  manifestations  of  the  universe, 
whether  of  power,  or  beauty  or  what  not.  Then  there  is  the  Worship 
of  Humanity.  The  highest  specimen  of  this  is  Christianity;  for 
Christianity,  if  you  will  think  of  it,  is  simply  the  highest  type  of  the 
Worship  of  Humanity,  because  God  himself  in  Christianity  is  con- 
ceived of  in  the  image  of  the  ideal  and  perfect  man.  Then  there  is 
another  form  of  religion  that  may  be  called  Scientific,  or  Cosmic.  The 
object  of  its  wonder,  its  awe,  its  admiration,  is  the  universe  considered 
as  a  universe ;  the  unity,  the  mystery,  the  wonder,  the  power  of  this 
great  Being  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  out  of  whom  we  have  come,  and 
on  whom  we  depend.  I  believe  that  the  religion  of  the  future,  the 
ideal  religion  will  combine  in  itself  all  these.  It  will  take  up  into 
itself,  the  admiration,  the  beauty,  the  might  that  manifested  itself  in 
Paganism.  It  will  feel  kindly  towards  art  and  towards  all  the  mani- 
festations of  this  mysterious  life  of  nature,  whether  under  our  feet  or 
over  our  heads.  It  will  take  up  into  itself  all  that  is  good  and  beautiful 
and  perfect  in  Christianity,  the  worship  of  the  ideal,  loving,  tender  man. 
It  will  take  up  into  itself  that  larger  unity,  of  which  both  Christianity 
and  Paganism  are  only  parts, — this  Cosmic  worship  of  the  universe." 

It  is  but  right  to  add,  that  the  Theory  of  Evolution  is  not  accepted 
merely  by  Cosmians  and  Unitarians,  who  are  beginning  to  make  of  it 
an  essential  feature  of  religion,  but  that  it  has  conquered  with  a  high 
hand  pulpits  more  or  less  orthodox,  in  which  case  an  attempt  is  some- 
times made  to  accommodate  it  to  the  demands  of  Revelation,  while  in 
other  instances  there  is  a  loyal  recognition  of  its  incompatibility  with 
the  belief  in  an  infallible  Biblical  record.  Of  the  ministers  who  have 
not  hesitated  to  accept  it  with  this  last  corollory,  may  be  mentioned, 
as  the  chief  among  the  Episcopalians,  the  Rev.  Heber  Newton,  of 
New  York,  and  among  the  Congregationalists  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  The  latter  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  to  admit  the 
truth  of  Evolution  is  to  renounce  the  reigning  theology.1 

I.  See  Mr.  Beecher's  article  in  The  North  American  Review  of  August,  1882. 
Being  present  with  several  other  Protestant  ministers  at  the  banquet  given  to 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  at  New  York,  on  the  9th  of  November,  1882,  Mr.  Beecher 
made  use  of  the  occasion  to  propose  a  toast  to  the  illustrious  philosopher,  and,  in 
doing  so,  he  once  more  affirmed  the  impossibility  of  reconciling  Spencer  with 
Calvin,  without  concealing  his  preference  for  the  former. 


COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION.  219 

Here,  however,  appears  a  phenomenon  characteristic  of  the  American 
mind,  which,  when  it  adopts  the  philosophy  of  the  old  world,  imme- 
diately transforms  it  into  religion,  as  already  seen  in  regard  to  German 
Idealism.  Religious  genius,  indeed,  consists  precisely  in  the  power 
to  perceive,  under  a  special  angle,  those  philosophical  and  scientific 
theories  which  are  in  appearance  the  most  refractory  to  all  meta- 
physical manipulation.  It  is  this  process  of  spiritualization  which 
Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham  in  some  measure  described,  when  he  said,  on 
opening  the  third  session  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  :  "  Vogt 
and  Buchner  profess  Materialism,  and  demonstrate  intelligence;  Hux- 
ley talks  of  protoplasm,  and  sets  us  wondering  at  thought ;  Moleschott 
tells  us  that  light  is  the  author  of  life,  and  bends  our  head  before  the 
uncreated  Light."  "And  what  wonder,"  wrote  Mr.  W.  C.  Gannett, 
in  1875,  "that  religious  awe  is  deepening  as  science  looks  and  speaks? 
Science  to-day  is  making  everything  reverent  to  us  by  in- 
creasing its  mystery.  ...  If  science  claims  to  be  religion,  tell 
her  No ;  but  from  wise  lips  she  makes  no  such  claims.  If  she  only 
claims  to  be  the  giver  of  the  known,  tell  her  that  you  value  her  for 
that,  but  as  much  for  the  Unknown,  that  vision  of  the  more-to-know 
which  she  everywhere  suggests.  To  hint  this  latter  is  as  distinctly  her 
function  as  is  discovery  of  fact.  And  the  best  of  all — I  love  to  repeat 
it — is  that  this  vision  of  the  Unknown  is  not  in  the  heights,  not  in  the 
depths,  but  in  the  common  and  the  near,  and  in  each  and  all  things. 
That  brings  God's  life  so  close !  The  Power  so  absolute  is  here ! 
I  do  nothing  without  it.  I  am  speaking,  you  are  listening,  by  it ;  we 
shall  fall  asleep  and  rise,  or  not  rise,  by  it.  The  atoms  and  the  in- 
stants are  packed  with  heights  and  depths,  bringing  to  everywhere  the 
Presence  which  is  Law  and  Right  and  Love."1 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  is  all  pure  mysticism.  But  the  thoughts 
which  such  language  reveals  are  none  the  less  important  factors  in  the 
existing  life  and  activities  of  what  may  be  spoken  of  as  American 
Rationalism.  If  the  reader  were  to  peruse  the  lectures  and  essays, 
summarized  or  reproduced  every  week  in  The  Index,  he  would  be 
surprised,  not  only  at  the  number  and  zeal  of  those  who  have  adopted 
the  synthetic  side  of  evolution,  but  also  at  the  resources  they  find  in 

1.  Proceedings  at  the  Eighth  Meeting  of  the  Free  Religiotis  Association. 
Boston  :    1875. 


220  COSMISM   AND  THE   RELIGION   OF   EVOLUTION. 

it  for  opening  up  new  horizons  to  the  religious  sentiment,  and  for  the 
satisfaction  of  it,  even  in  its  most  exalted  aspirations.  It  is  true  many 
of  these  works  possess  little,  if,  indeed,  any  value  except  as  landmarks 
of  the  tendency  of  thought.  But  here  a  page  by  Abbot,  Wasson, 
Gannett,  or  Savage,  and  there  a  lecture  or  sermon  by  Potter, 
Frothingham,  or  Chadwick  might  be  pointed  out  which  are  as  much 
marked  by  rigour  of  demonstration  as  by  elevation  of  thought  and 
poetical  language.  These  latter,  indeed,  deserve  the  attention  of  all 
who  are  afraid  that  the  progress  of  modern  thought  will  lead  to  the 
destruction  or  even  the  weakening  of  those  sentiments  which  give 
power  and  greatness  to  the  human  mind. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  movement  corresponds  with  the 
views  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  himself,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  fol- 
lowing letter,  which  he  wrote  on  the  9th  of  January,  1S83,  to  the  first 
and  most  enthusiastic  of  his  religious  interpreters  in  America,  Mr. 
Savage : — 

"  I  have  read  with  much  interest  your  clearly  reasoned  and  eloquent 
exposition  of  the  religious  and  ethical  bearings  of  the  evolution 
doctrines.  I  rejoice  very  much  to  see  that  those  doctrines  are  coming 
to  the  front.  It  is  high  time  that  something  should  be  done  towards 
making  the  people  see  that  there  remains  for  them,  not  a  mere  nega- 
tion of  their  previous  ethical  and  religious  beliefs,  which,  as  you  say, 
have  a  definite  scientific  and  unshakeable  foundation.  I  hope  that 
your  teachings  will  initiate  something  like  a  body  of  definite  adherents 
who  will  become  the  germ  of  an  organization.  I  have  been  long 
looking  forward  to  the  time  when  something  of  this  kind  might  be 
done,  and  it  seems  to  me  you  are  the  man  to  do  it."1 

This  letter,  whose  publication  was  authorized  by  Mr.  Spencer,  is  all 
the  more  significant  from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Savage,  in  common  with 
Mr.  Graham  and  Matthew  Arnold,  sees  in  the  Unknowable  an  ordain- 

1.  See  The  Christian  Register  of  the  29th  of  March,  1883.  By  a  singular 
co-incidence,  it  was  only  a  few  weeks  later  that  Dr.  Putnam,  one  of  the  most 
authoritative  representatives  of  the  Conservative  school  of  Unitarians  in  America, 
spoke  of  Mr.  Savage  as  the  ablest  and  most  influential  of  their  Radical  preachers, 
adding  that,  however  hostile  his  sermons  and  writings  might  be  to  much  that  many 
Unitarians  regarded  as  essential,  they  seemed  to  him  to  reveal  a  more  affirmative 
tone  of  thought  and  a  more  believing  Christian  temperament  than  those  of  Parker 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  Radical  school. — (Dr.  Putnam's  address  on  American 
Unitarianism,  at  the  meeting  of  ministers  in  connection  with  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association.     The  Inquirer  of  June  9th,  1883.) 


COSMISM   AND   THE   RELIGION   OF    EVOLUTION.  221 

ing  Power  who  follows,  if  not  a  definite  and  foreseen  purpose,  at  least 
a  progressive  aim,  and  that,  though  he  refuses  to  see  in  the  soul  a 
distinct  entity,  he  pronounces  in  favour  of  personal  immortality. 

It  only  remains  to  add  that,  though  it  would  be  rash  to  predict  that 
America  will  have  the  honour  of  giving  the  world  a  new  faith,  as  some 
of  its  writers  affirm,  still,  whether  we  take  note  of  the  Cosmians,  the 
Transcendentalists,  or  those  who  occupy  a  position  intermediate  be- 
tween these  two  schools,  or  stop  at  the  last  phases  of  the  Rationalistic 
movement,  which  began,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  revolt  of  Unitarianism 
against  the  dogmas  of  Predestination  and  the  Trinity,  we  find  every- 
where, as  an  affirmative  element,  side  by  side  with  free  thought  carried 
to  its  utmost  limits,  the  perception  of  an  absolute  and  unconditioned 
Being,  who  reveals  Himself  in  nature  under  the  infinite  diversity  of 
phenomena. 

Whether  the  object  of  this  common  faith  be  named  the  "  Eternal 
One"  with  Emerson,  or  the  "Cosmos"  with  Professor  Fiske;  the  "God 
of  Science  "  with  Mr.  Abbot,  or  the  "  God  of  Evolution  "  with  Mr. 
Savage ;  the  "  Universe  in  all  its  possibilities  "  according  to  the  defi- 
nition of  Mr.  Potter,  or  the  "  Power  which  slowly  raises  us  towards 
perfection "  with  Mr.  Gannett ;  or,  indeed,  "  the  Being  behind  all 
appearances,"  to  use  the  definition  of  Mr.  Adler, — it  is,  in  a  word, 
Pantheism  which  is  flowing  with  full  force  through  the  advanced 
regions  of  religious  thought  in  the  United  States.  And  thus  the  pre- 
diction made  by  Tocqueville,  at  a  time  when  the  Unitarian  reform, 
then  in  full  vigour,  seemed  rather  to  indicate  a  recrudescence  of 
Monotheism,  is  being  realized  :  "  In  democratic  times  the  idea  of 
unity  besets  the  human  mind ;  it  seeks  its  realization  on  all  sides,  and 
when  it  believes  this  has  been  found,  gladly  lies  down  in  its  arms  and 
rests  there.  Not  only  does  it  come  to  see  in  the  world  a  single 
creation  with  one  Creator,  but  even  this  dual  conception  becomes  too 
burdensome,  so  that  it  sets  about  enlarging  and  simplifying  its  thought 
by  regarding  God  and  the  universe  as  parts  of  a  single  whole."1 

I.  De  la  Democratic  en  Amcriqtie,     Paris:  Levy,  1864.     Vol.  III.,  p.  50. 


PART     III. 
CHAPTER      XI. 


THEISM  IN  CONTEMPORARY  INDIA. 

A  recollection  of  Calcutta — Brahmoism — The  Hindu  religion  and  free  inquiry — 
Philosophy  among  the  ancient  Brahmans — The  idealistic  Pantheism  of  the 
Vedanta — Intermediate  Divinities — Syncretism  and  confusion  of  the  Hindu  faith 
— The  Vishnuite  Reformers  and  the  doctrine  of  Bhakti — Attempts  at  reconcilia- 
tion, on  the  ground  of  the  Divine  unity,  between  the  Hindu  and  Mohammedan 
creeds — Kabir,  Nanak,  Akbar — Influence  of  European  ideas  upon  the  religious 
mind  of  India — Ram  Mohun  Roy  :  his  eclectic  doctrines  and  his  preaching  against 
idolatry — Organization  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  Calcutta — Debendra  Nath  Tagore, 
the  successor  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy — The  controversy  respecting  the  Monotheistic 
character  of  the  Vedas — Mission  of  the  four  Pandits  to  Benares — Rejection  of 
Vedic  infallibility  by  the  Brahmo  Somaj — The  drawing  up  of  a  Rationalistic  con- 
fession of  faith,  the  Brahma  Dharma — Accession  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen. 


It  has  been  contended  that  pure  Theism  might  suit  exceptional 
temperaments,  cold  enough  to  rest  satisfied  with  a  vague  religiosity, 
and  too  idealistic  to  do  without  it,  but  that  it  could  never  satisfy  the 
aspirations  of  the  masses,  nor  furnish  means  for  the  organization  of  a 
durable  system  of  faith  and  worship.  Still,  the  world  has  witnessed, 
for  more  than  half-a-century,  the  constant  progress  of  a  religious 
movement  which,  though  based  exclusively  on  the  principles  of  natural 
religion,  presents  all  the  characteristics  of  a  positive  faith  :  churches, 
priests,  and  worshippers.  But  it  is  in  India  where  we  must  look  for 
this. 

Having,  on  the  last  Sunday  in  August,  1876,  walked  along  the 
Machoua-Bazar  Street,  in  the  native  part  of  Calcutta,  I  entered  a  sort 
of  neo-gothic  chapel,  which  was  already  occupied  by  some  three  or 
four  hundred  natives,  draped  in  those  white  and  flowing  shawls  which 
form  so  striking  a  contrast  with  the  bronzed  complexion  of  the  Ben- 
galese  and  suggest  the  fine  effect  of  the  ancient  toga.  There  were 
scarcely  more  than  a  dozen  women  to  be  seen,  who  were  seated  in 
one  of  the  aisles,  but  certain  rustlings  behind  the  gauze  veil  which 
concealed  the  gallery  rightly  led  me  to  suspect  that  the  general 
audience  was  not  so  exclusively  comprised  of  the  stronger  sex. 
Immediately  in  front  of  the  entrance  stood  a  vedi, —  a  small  marble 

Q 


226  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY   INDIA. 

platform,  raised  to  a  height  of  several  steps  and  surrounded  by  a 
balustrade, — where  the  officiating  minister,  in  a  simple  muslin  sur- 
plice and  squatting  in  Oriental  fashion,  was  waiting  for  the  hour  to 
commence  the  service.  I  could  have  believed  myself  in  some  native 
Protestant  congregation  had  it  not  been  for  the  entire  absence  of  all 
Christian  symbolism.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  neither  the 
perpetual  fire  of  the  Guebres  nor  the  grinning  idols  of  the  Hindu 
Pagodas ;  and,  though  the  building,  as  a  whole,  possessed  the  austere 
simplicity  of  a  Mosque,  its  architecture  presented  none  of  the  details 
which  characterize  the  edifices  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Allah.  In 
fact,  the  God  worshipped  here  was  neither  the  Divinity  of  the  Chris- 
tians nor  the  Guebres,  neither  the  Deity  of  the  Hindus  nor  the 
Mussulmans  :  it  was  the  God  of  a  new  religion,  which  claims  to  be 
a  fusion  of  all  the  faiths  of  India,  and  even  of  the  entire  world,  in  a 
religious  synthesis  based  upon  the  universal  revelation  of  reason  and 
conscience — the  God  of  Brahmoism. 

The  sect,  or  rather  the  religious  school,  of  Brahmoism  is  of  rela- 
tively recent  origin,  since  it  was  only  in  1880  that  it  celebrated  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  foundation  by  the  Rajah  Ram  Mohun  Roy. 
Still,  it  already  possesses  more  than  170  congregations,  some  thirty 
organs  of  the  native  press,  many  thousands  of  adherents, — among 
whom  figure  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  the  native  society, — 
and,  finally,  a  whole  religious  and  philosophical  literature,  both  in 
English  and  in  the  various  local  dialects.  In  spite  of  its  opposition 
to  the  tendencies  of  orthodox  Christianity,  it  has  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing the  attention  and  sympathy  of  all  religious  parties,  even  among 
the  English.  These  are  no  longer  the  days  in  which  Victor  Jacque- 
mont  thus  described,  in  a  letter  from  Calcutta,  the  sentiments  of  the 
Anglo-Indians  towards  the  noble  and  worthy  Ram  Mohun  Roy : — 
"  The  honest  English  execrate  him  because  he  is,  they  say,  a  fright- 
ful Deist."1  

1.  The  principal  historian  and  most  ardent  champion  of  Brahmoism  in  Europe 
to-day  is  Miss  Sophia  Dobson  Collet,  who  according  to  her  own  avowal,  accepts 
Trinitarian  Christianity,  a  circumstance  which  speaks  as  well  for  the  breadth  of  her 
ideas  as  it  does  for  the  value  of  her  testimony,  in  favour  of  a  form  of  worship  "com- 
bining Evangelical  piety  with  Unitarian  theology."  In  addition  to  several  small 
treatises  on  the  history  of  Brahmoism,  Indian  Theism  (1870),  Brahma  Marriages 
(1871),  Miss  S.  D.  Collet  has  published  every  year  since  1876  an  Annual,  called 
The  Brahmo  .Year-Book,  which  embodies  the  most  complete  and  circumstantial 
details  of  the  Theistic  movement  in  India. 


THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  227 

There  is  no  need  for  astonishment  that  such  a  movement  should 
have  sprung  out  of  Hinduism.  The  religion  of  the  Brahmans  has 
always  been  on  good  terms  with  free  inquiry  and  intellectual  progress. 
Even  before  the  rise  of  Buddhism,  philosophical  speculation  had 
attained  to  considerable  eminence  among  the  Aryans  of  the  Punjaub 
and  the  Ganges.  So  far  from  opposing  this  tendency,  the  sacerdotal 
class  gave  it  the  right  of  citizenship  in  the  Vedaic  teaching,  on  condi- 
tion that  criticism,  though  perfectly  free  in  the  matter  of  dogma,  should 
respect  the  nominal  infallibility  of  the  Vedas,  the  separation  of  caste, 
and  the  privileges  of  the  Brahmans ;  and  though,  at  a  later  time,  they 
struggled  against  the  doctrine  of  Buddha,  it  was  not  because  this 
doctrine  tended  to  Atheism,  but  because  it  proclaimed  the  equality  of 
mankind,  and  denied  the  necessity  of  a  priesthood. 

Then  were  seen  to  develope,  in  the  Brahmanic  schools,  the  most 
diverse  and  even  the  most  contradictory  systems  of  thought.  Some 
sought  an  explanation  of  the  universe  in  an  atomic  theory  which 
suggests  the  doctrines  of  Epicurus  and  Haeckel.  Others  taught  a 
more  or  less  disguised  Evolutionary  Atheism.  The  philosophy  how- 
ever, which  at  length  gained  the  predominance  was  the  system  of  the 
Vedanta,  an  idealistic  Pantheism  which  had  previously  existed  in 
outline  in  certain  hymns  of  the  Veda.1  According  to  this  doctrine, 
which  is  summed  up  in  the  word  advaita  (non-dualism),  God  is  the 
sole  real  existence  and  the  world  exists  only  in  him ;  all  the  pheno- 
mena which  appear  to  us  as  real  are  only  an  illusion  of  our  senses.  It 
will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  if  the  idea  of  the  divine  personality  seems 
new  in  India,  it  is  not  the  same  with  what  concerns  the  belief  in  the 
unity  of  God. 

This  abstract  conception  of  the  divinity  was  but  ill  adapted  to  the 
worship  of  the  masses  who  remained  faithful  to  the  most  striking  and 
living  figures  of  the  ancient  gods.  But  the  Pantheistic  philosophy  of 
the  Vedanta  lent  itself  completely,  like  its  Western  equivalent,  neo- 
Platonism,  to  the  maintenance  of  subordinate  gods,  regarded  as  inter- 
mediate between  man  and  the  Absolute.  The  Brahmans,  therefore, 
succeeded  easily  enough  in  accommodating  the  objects  of  the  popular 
faith  within  the  frame-work  of  their  theology  ;  and  this  is  true  of  those 
most  removed  from  the  Vedaic  tradition,  since  they  were  regarded  as 
the  forms  or  personified  energies,  or  indeed  as  the  incarnations  or 

I.  Rig  Vdca  X.  90.      See  Monier  Williams's  Indian  Wisdom,  3rd  edit.,  p.  24. 


228  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY   INDIA. 

Avataras  of  the  supreme  Divinity.  It  was  on  this  principle  that  the 
Brahmans  made  of  Buddha  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  in  order  to 
facilitate  the  absorption  of  Buddhism,  and  that  even  to-day  certain 
Vishnuites  accept  Christ  as  the  last  incarnation  of  their  god.1 

This  elasticity  and  eclecticism  may  be  said  to  form  the  essential 
features  of  the  Hindu  religion.  There  has  never,  indeed,  been  a 
god  really  accepted  by  the  people  to  which  India  has  closed  the  doors 
of  its  pantheon ;  there  is  not  a  religious  idea,  coarse  or  sublime,  which 
it  has  not  accepted  with  equal  readiness  at  some  moment  or  other 
of  history.  And  since,  moreover,  it  has  never  been  able  to  resolve 
upon  the  rejection  of  an  acquired  belief,  but  has  confined  itself  to  the 
superposition  of  its  new  conceptions,2  there  has  resulted  from  this  a 
confused  and  odd  jumble,  which  shocks  in  the  highest  degree  our 
European  conceptions,  but  which  none  the  less  serves  to  explain  the 
prodigious  vitality  of  Hinduism.  "Starting  from  the  Vedas,"  says 
Prof.  Monier  Williams,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Indian  Wisdom,  "  it 
ends  by  appearing  to  embrace  something  from  all  religions  and  to  pre- 
sent phases  suited  to  all  minds.  It  has  its  spiritual  and  its  material 
aspect,  its  esoteric  and  its  exoteric,  its  subjective  and  objective,  its 
pure  and  its  impure.  It  is  at  once  vaguely  Pantheistic,  severely 
Monotheistic,  grossly  Polytheistic  and  coldly  Atheistic.  It  has  a  side 
for  the  practical,  another  for  the  devotional  and  another  for  the 
speculative." 

At  the  close  of  the  Vedaic  period,  the  only  way  of  salvation  lay  in 
the  observance  of  minute  rules  and  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  more  and 
more  complicated  rites  which  the  Brahmans  had  established.  The 
re-action  against  excesses  of  the  sacredotal  spirit  produced  Buddhism 
on  the  one  hand ;  while  on  the  other,  it  led  the  very  defenders  of  the 
old  religion  to  admit  the  value  of  renunciation,  contemplation  and 
ecstacy  as  the  supreme  means  of  attaining  to  union  with  the  Divinity, 
the  absorption  of  the  individual  soul  in  the  Divine  Essence.  But 
this  concession  did  not  prevent  the  momentary  triumph  of  the  Budd- 

i.  This  fact  is  mentioned  by  Professor  Monier  Williams  in  his  little  treatise  : 
Hinduism.     London,  1880,  p.  108. 

2.  Prof.  Max  Miiller,  who  finds  it  difficult  to  speak  with  severity  of  the  Hindus, 
has  pleaded  extenuating  circumstances  in  relation  to  this  process  in  his  Origin  and 
Development  of  A'eligion  studied  in  the  light  of  the  Religions  of  India.  The 
eminent  Indianist  specially  insists  on  the  lesson  of  practical  toleration  which  Europe 
rn>ght  learn  from  it. 


THEISM   IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  229 

hists  who  were,  in  this  particular,  more  logical  than  their  rivals.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  there  arose  a  third  school,  better  adapted  to 
respond  to  the  aspirations  of  the  masses.  Their  doctrine  was  that  of 
JBhakll,  already  present  in  outline  in  the  poem  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita, 
and  which  has  chiefly  prevailed  among  the  worshippers  of  Vishnu. 

From  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  century  a  series  of  reformers,  such 
as  Ramanuja,  Madhava,  Vallabhacarya  and  Chaitanya,  without  con- 
testing the  value  of  sacrifices  or  of  asceticism,  placed,  by  the  side  of 
and  above  these  two  religious  practices,  fa.ith  and  love  (bhakti)  towards 
the  Divinity,  considered  in  some  one  or  other  of  his  principal  incar- 
nations. According  to  this  doctrine,  the  worshipper,  in  order  to  reach 
beatitude,  must  gradually  realize  the  following  states  : — ist,  the  con- 
templation of  God;  2nd,  voluntary  subjection;  3rd,  sympathy;  4th, 
filial  affection;  and,  5th,  passionate  love.  To  facilitate  this  increasing 
exaltation,  the  reading  of  the  old  Vedaic  Mantras  was  replaced  by 
songs  and  dances  and  by  the  waving  of  lights  and  the  sound  of  in- 
struments before  the  images  of  the  god  ;  the  prayers  were  henceforth 
to  be  in  the  language  of  the  people,  and  the  distinctions  of  caste  were 
proscribed  from  the  interior  of  the  sanctuaries  or  even  during  the 
entire  period  of  religious  festivities.  Chaitanya,  above  all,  insisted 
upon  the  importance  of  these  practices,  in  order  to  attain  to  com- 
munion with  Krishna.  Tradition  relates,  indeed,  that  he  drowned 
himself  when  in  one  of  his  ecstacies  and  whilst  he  was  bathing  near 
Puri. 

The  greater  part  of  these  reformers  admitted  the  personality  of  God, 
and  attributed  to  him  an  existence  distinct  from  physical  nature,  as 
well  as  from  the  individual  or  finite  soul.1  But  the  theory  of  incar- 
nation, which  they  allowed  to  keep  its  place  in  their  respective  systems, 
was  destined  to  re-open  the  door  to  all  the  abuses  of  idolatry  which 
have  continued  to  characterize  the  Vishnu  sects  down  to  the  present 
day.  It  was  not,  therefore,  from  that  direction  that  a  purification  of 
religion  could  arise.1 

In  the  meantime,  Brahmanism,  while  scarcely  freed  from  the  diffi- 
culties it  had  to  encounter  in  Buddhism,  found  itself  in  antagonism 
with  a  new  adversary,  whose  zeal  for  proselytizing  could  be  abated 
neither  by  fire  nor  sword.     Still  it  was  in  vain  that  the  zealots  of 

1.  Monier  Williams,  Indian  Theistic  Reformers,  in  the  XHIth  Volume  (2nd 
Series)  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society. 


230  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA. 

Islamism  massacred  the  priests,  enslaved  the  worshippers,  and  de- 
spoiled and  sacked  the  temples  of  Hinduism ;  they  could  not  over- 
throw the  religious  and  social  edifice  of  native  civilization, — it  may 
even  be  asserted  that  they  borrowed  more  from  it  than  they  gave 
to  it.1  The  chief  result  of  this  contact  of  the  rigid  Monotheism  of 
the  conquerors  with  the  elastic  Pantheism  of  the  conquered,  was  that 
there  sprang  up,  in  the  minds  of  certain  adherents  of  each  of  the  two 
faiths,  an  idea  of  mutual  approach  towards  reconciliation,  if  not  of  an 
actual  fusion,  on  the  ground  of  their  common  principle — the  belief 
in  one  God. 

Among  those  who  sought  to  give  practical  effect  to  this  idea,  with 
a  view  to  diminish  idolatry,  we  find  in  the  15th  century,  a  disciple  of 
the  philosopher  Ramananda,  the  weaver  Kabir,  who  attacked  at 
one  and  the  same  time  the  authority  both  of  the  Koran  and  the 
Vedas,  in  order  to  substitute  for  it  a  purely  spiritual  worship.  He 
disavowed,  moreover,  all  distinction  of  caste  and  said  that  all  who 
loved  God  and  did  good  were  brethren,  whether  they  were  Hindus  or 
Mussulmans.  His  preaching  drew  around  him  numerous  followers 
attracted  indifferently  from  the  two  faiths  whose  vital  principles  he 
claimed  to  teach,  and  the  legend  by  which  is  memory  is  enshrined  in 
the  popular  song  of  Bhakta-mal,  relates  this  characteristic  detail,  that 
at  his  death  Mussulmans  and  Hindus  disputed  the  possession  of  his 
body,  the  latter  desiring  to  burn  and  the  former  to  bury  it,  according 
to  their  respective  rites ;  but  that  when  the  coffin  was  opened  there 
was  found  nothing  whatever  in  it  but  flowers.  It  appears,  however, 
that  a  part  of  these  was  burnt  at  Benares  and  the  ashes  deposited  in 
the  Chapel  of  Kabir-Chaura,  which  still  attracts  the  devotees  of  Hin- 
dustan; while  the  remainder  was  buried  at  Mogar,  where  the  reformer 
died,  and  the  monument  raised  above  the  spot  is  visited  yearly  by 
numerous  pilgrims  at  the  time  of  the  annual  fair.  More  than  once 
in  history  contemporary  religious  systems  have  been  seen  to  damn  the 
same  heretic ;  this  is  perhaps  the  only  instance  in  which  two  hostile 
faiths  have  been  seen  to  canonize  the  same  apostle. 

A  disciple  of  Kabir,  Nanak  Shah,  likewise  sought  to  fuse  the  two 
great  religions  of  his  country  into  a  single  faith,  with  no  other  dogma 

1.  Monier  Williams,  Modern  India,  2nd  Edition  (London:  Triibner,  1878). 
Garcin  de  Tassy,  Memoire  sur  les  Particnlariles  de  la  Religion  Mussulmane  dans 
Vlnde  (Paris,  2nd  Edition,  1869). 


THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  231 

than  belief  in  the  unity  of  God,  in  the  necessity  of  moral  purity  and 
in  toleration  towards  other  forms  of  faith,  together  with  an  absence  of 
all  ceremonial  rites  except  ablutions  and  prayers.  Such  was  the  origin 
of  the  Sikhs,  who  formed,  at  first,  a  purely  religious  association. 
Finally,  the  celebrated  Akbar,  Grand-Mogul  as  he  was,  conceived  of 
the  organization  of  a  new  faith,  under  the  striking  name  of  "  Divine 
Monotheism,"  in  which,  while  preserving  certain  forms  of  Islamism, 
he  introduced  practices  borrowed  from  the  Hindus,  the  Guebres,  the 
Christians  and  even  from  the  Jews. 

Unfortunately  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  such  a  magnificent  syn- 
thesis. The  sect  of  the  Kabir-panthis  which,  moreover,  never  secured 
a  wide  extension,  became  identified  with  the  worship  of  Rama,  an  in- 
carnation of  Vishnu,  and  to-day  it  has  even  added  the  worship  of  its 
gourous  or  spiritual  chiefs.  The  Sikhs,  after  being  transformed  into  a 
military  confederation  by  the  Mussulman  persecutions,  gradually  re- 
opened their  temples  to  the  idols  and  superstitions  of  Hinduism. 
Finally,  the  syncretism  of  Akbar  was  destined  to  scarcely  extend 
beyond  the  walls  of  his  palace,  and  the  only  vestige  of  it  which  has 
remained,  is,  perhaps,  to  be  found  in  the  eclectic  architecture  of  the 
cruciform  temple  in  the  town  of  Brindaban,  which  was  dedicated  to 
Krishna  by  the  rajah  Man-Singh,  the  friend  of  Akbar.  This  edifice 
possesses  a  gothic  nave  lined  with  Hindu  pillars,  which  are  sur- 
mounted by  Moorish  arches. 

The  introduction  of  European  civilization  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
the  speculative  mind  of  the  Hindus.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that, 
side  by  side  with  Christianity,  the  English  have  carried  into  India  the 
arts,  sciences  and  methods,  in  short  the  whole  literary  and  philo- 
sophical heritage  of  Europe.  Hence,  although  Brahmoism  seems  to 
have  sprung  from  Hindu  traditions  by  a  gradual  and  original  evolu- 
tion, it  is  easy  to  discover  the  traces  of  European  influence  in  the 
three  men  who  have,  in  a  sense,  personified  the  successive  phases  of 
the  movement;  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy  was  born  in  1774,1  at  Radhnagar,  and  belonged 
to  a  Brahmanic  family  specially  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Vishnu. 

1.  In  1780  according  to  Garcin  de  Tassy  ( Histoire  de  la  Littcralure  Hindonie 
tt  Hindomtanie,     Paris,  2nd  Ed.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  348). 


232  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY   INDIA. 

From  his  infancy  he  was  remarkable  for  his  devotion  to  the  idol  of  the 
paternal  house.  But  being  sent  early  to  the  Mussulman  school  at 
Patna  to  learn  Arabic  and  Persian,  it  was  not  without  effect  that  he 
found  himself  in  contact  with  Semitic  Monotheism,  and  he  had 
scarcely  returned  to  his  family,  when,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  drew 
up  a  protest  against  the  practices  of  Hindu  idolatry.  His  father,  who 
occupied  a  distinguished  position  in  the  district  of  Burdwan,  judged 
it  prudent  to  send  him  from  home  again,  in  the  hope,  perhaps,  that 
contact  with  the  world  would  cool  the  glowing  zeal  of  the  young  re- 
former. But  the  latter  simply  took  advantage  of  his  travels  to  devote 
himself  exclusively  to  the  study  of  comparative  theology,  at  first  in 
the  principal  temples  of  India  and  afterwards  in  those  of  Tibet,  where 
the  independence  of  his  criticism  brought  him  into  collision  with  the 
adherents  of  Buddhism.  When,  after  an  absence  of  four  years,  he 
re-appeared  in  his  native  town,  not  only  had  he  fully  adopted  the 
principle  of  the  divine  unity,  but  what  is  more,  he  had  resolved  that 
no  obstacle  should  deter  him  from  combatting  the  superstitions  of  his 
fellow-countrymen. 

"After  my  father's  death  in  1803,"  he  himself  wrote  in  a  letter  sub- 
sequently published  in  the  Athenceum,  "  I  opposed  the  advocates  of 
idolatry  with  still  greater  boldness.  Availing  myself  of  the  art  of 
printing,  now  established  in  India,  I  published  various  works  and 
pamphlets  against  their  errors,  in  the  native  and  foreign  languages. 
The  ground  which  I  took  in  all  my  controversies  was  not  that  of  op- 
position to  Brahminism,  but  to  a  perversion  of  it,  and  I  endeavoured 
to  show  that  the  idolatry  of  the  Brahmins  was  contrary  to  the  practice 
of  their  ancestors,  and  the  principles  of  ancient  books  and  authorities 
which  they  profess  to  revere  and  obey."1  He  had  courageously  set 
himself  to  learn — in  addition  to  Persian,  Arabic,  Sanscrit  and  English 
— Hebrew  and  Greek,  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to  obtain  from 
original  sources  a  knowledge  of  the  principal  religions  which  have 
played  a  part  in  history.  Prof.  Monier  Williams  speaks  of  him  as  the 
first  really  earnest  investigator  in  the  science  of  comparative  theology, 
which  the  world  has  produced.2 

These  researches,  by  adding  still  greater  amplitude  to  his  religious 

1.  See  The  Athenaum  of  London,  for  October  5,  1833. 

2.  Indian  Theistic  Reformers,  in  the  XHIth  Vol.  (2nd  Series)  of  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society. 


THEISM   IN   CONTEMPORARY   INDIA.  233 

horizon,  had  inspired  him  with  the  project  of  founding  a  faith  on  the 
simple  belief  in  the  unity  of  God  and  of  a  future  life.  But,  being 
disinherited  by  his  father,  he  found  himself  reduced  to  an  acceptance 
of  the  humble  position  of  diwan  with  the  English  collector  of  taxes 
at  Rangpoor,  and  it  was  not  till  1814  that  he  was  able  to  settle  at 
Calcutta  in  order  to  devote  himself  there  to  the  spread  of  his  doctrine. 
This  doctrine  was  drawn  directly  from  the  Vedanta.  Still,  of  the  two 
propositions  which  constitute  the  basis  of  the  Vedantine  philosophy, — 
the  unity  of  God  and  the  illusion  of  individual  existence, — he  attached 
himself  almost  exclusively  to  the  first,  compiling  the  Vedas  in  order 
to  furnish  himself  with  arms  against  the  Polytheism  of  his  contem- 
poraries. He  cannot,  therefore,  be  called  a  Monotheist  to  the  extent 
that  this  term  is  applied  to  the  believers  in  a  distinct  and  personal 
God,  such  as  the  Jehovah  of  Moses  or  the  Allah  of  Mohammed. 
But,  while  remaining  wholly  faithful  in  this  respect  to  the  Vedaic 
tradition,  he  seems  to  have  made  the  essence  of  religion  consist 
exclusively  in  the  recognition  of  the  Divine,  as  this  principle  is 
formulated  either  by  the  Pantheism  of  the  Brahmanas  or  by  the 
Monotheism  of  the  Bible  or  the  Koran.  Hence  he  felt  an  equal 
veneration  for  all  who  had  taught  him — Moses  and  Jesus,  Myaca  and 
Mohammed.  This  eclectic  tendency  is  specially  noticeable  in  his 
work  on  The  Precepts  of  Jesus,  the  Guide  to  Peace  and  Happiness 
(1823),  in  which  he  renders  homage  to  the  moral  value  of  Chris- 
tianity, while  he  at  the  same  time  rejects  the  divinity  of  its  Founder. 

It  has  been  said  that  Ram  Mohun  Roy  delighted  to  pass  for  a 
believer  in  the  Vedanta  with  the  Hindus,  for  a  Christian  among  the 
adherents  of  that  creed,  and  for  a  disciple  of  the  Koran  with  the 
champions  of  Islamism.  The  truth  is  that  his  eclecticism  equalled 
his  sincerity.  As  a  curious  illustration  of  his  influence,  it  is  said  of 
him  that  he  converted  to  Unitarianism  a  Baptist  missionary  who 
rendered  great  service  to  the  cause  of  education  in  India,  the  Rev. 
W.  Adams.  In  his  turn,  however,  it  was  from  the  religious  meetings 
held  by  Mr.  Adams  in  Calcutta  that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  organiz- 
ing a  Theistic  form  of  worship  for  the  use  of  the  Hindus. 

He  had  already  grouped  his  adherents  into  an  association  entitled 
Atmiya  Sabhct  (Spiritual  Society).  In  1829,  he  introduced  into  it  the 
celebration  of  a  divine  service  divided  in  four  parts  :  the  recital  of 
Vedic  texts,  the  reading  of  an  extract  from  the  Upanishads,  together 


234  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA. 

with  a  sermon  and  hymns.  The  new  sect  was  not  slow  to  become 
known  by  the  name  of  Brahma  Sabha  or  Brahmo  Somaj  (the  Society 
of  God).  As  the  reader  is  aware,  according  to  the  Hindu  theology, 
Brahma  is  not  only  the  first  person  of  the  Trinity  but  he  is  also,  as 
the  neuter  of  his  name,  Brahman,  serves  to  indicate,  the  absolute  and 
eternal  Being  whose  creative,  preserving  and  destructive  agencies  are 
respectively  personified  by  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva. 

In  1830,  the  Brahmo  Somaj  installed  itself  in  a  house  which  its 
founder  had  purchased  for  that  purpose  at  Calcutta.  The  deed  of 
gift  says  that  "  No  sermon,  preaching,  discourse,  prayer  or  hymn  is  to 
be  delivered,  made  or  used  in  such  worship,  but  such  as  have  a 
tendency  to  the  promotion  of  the  contemplation  of  the  Author  and 
Preserver  of  the  universe,  to  the  promotion  of  charity,  morality,  piety, 
benevolence,  virtue  and  the  strengthening  of  the  bonds  of  union 
between  men  of  all  religious  persuasions  and  creeds."  One  portion 
of  this  building  was  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  Brahmans  in  their 
reading  of  the  esoteric  texts,  which  in  the  Vedas  cannot  be  communi- 
cated to  the  other  castes. 

Unhappily,  Ram  Mohun  Roy  embarked  shortly  afterwards  for 
England,  where  he  was  sent  with  the  title  of  rajah  in  order  to  make 
certain  demands  on  behalf  of  the  Grand-Mogul  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James.  He  had  long  cherished  the  idea  of  visiting  Europe,  where 
he  was  already  known  by  reputation.  The  upper  classes  in  England 
gave  him  the  kind  of  reception  which  they  know  so  well  how  to  offer, 
altogether  apart  from  political  considerations,  to  eminent  men  of 
every  country  and  race.  He  had  no  sooner  disembarked  than  he 
became  the  lion  of  the  season  in  London,  and  yet  this  flattering  at- 
tention did  not  diminish  in  the  slightest  degree  the  ease  and  the 
natural  modesty  of  his  character.  Miss  S.  D.  Collet,  who  remembers 
having  caught  a  glimpse  of  him  at  this  time,  states  that  he  won  the 
sympathy  of  every  one  by  the  affability  of  his  manners,  no  less  than 
by  the  cultivation  of  his  mind ;  and  Garcin  de  Tassy,  who  met  him 
the  following  year  at  Paris,  describes  his  personal  appearance  in  these 
terms :  "  His  physique  answered  to  his  fine  moral  qualities ;  he 
possessed  a  noble  and  expressive  physiognomy ;  his  complexion  was 
extremely  bronzed,  almost  black ;  but  his  regular  nose,  his  brilliant 
and  animated  eyes,  his  broad  forehead  and  the  beauty  of  his  features 
rendered  his  countenance  remarkable.    He  was  six  feet  in  height  and 


THEISM    IN    CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  235 

well  proportioned.  His  dress  was  habitually  blue ;  but  he  wore  over 
it  a  white  shawl,  which  was  rolled  upon  his  shoulders  and  reached 
down  to  his  waist  in  front.  He  enclosed  his  hair  with  a  turban  after 
the  manner  of  the  Mussulmans  of  India."1 

His  mission  being  accomplished,  he  was  preparing  to  return  to 
India,  in  order  to  make  use  of  the  experience  he  had  acquired  in 
England  for  the  advancement  of  the  reform  he  was  carrying  out, 
when,  exhausted  by  his  exertions  and  perhaps  a  victim  to  the  climate, 
he  fell  ill  and  died  at  Bristol  on  the  27th  September,  1833.  His 
remains  rest  in  the  cemetery  of  that  town,  beneath  a  monument  built 
in  the  Oriental  style  by  his  disciple  and  friend,  Dwarka  Nath  Tagore, 
who  came  himself  to  die  in  England  some  years  later. 

Deprived  of  its  leader,  the  little  Church  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj 
languished  for  about  a  dozen  years,  and  seemed  at  last  on  the  point 
of  dying  out,  when  it  placed  the  young  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  at  its 
head.  This  latter,  who  was  born  in  1818,  was  the  son  of  Dwarka 
Nath  Tagore,  just  mentioned  as  the  friend  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  and 
he  belonged  to  the  Brahmanic  clan  of  Piralis.  When  scarcely  twenty 
years  of  age,  he  had  already  founded  an  "  Association  for  the  Search 
of  Truth  "  (Tattva  Bodhini  Sabha),  which  proposed  to  itself  "to  sus- 
tain the  labours  of  Rajah  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  by  introducing  gradually 
among  the  natives  of  this  country  the  Monotheistic  system  of  Divine 
worship  inculcated  in  the  original  Hindu  Scriptures."  The  Associa- 
tion met  weekly  in  the  house  of  the  elder  Nath  Tagore,  to  discuss 
religious  questions ;  once  a  month  it  celebrated  a  Divine  service,  in 
which  hymns  were  sung  and  passages  read  from  the  Uphanishads. 
It  had  even  begun  to  train  missionaries  to  preach,  throughout  India, 
the  need  of  reform  in  the  national  worship,  when,  in  1843,  it  incor- 
porated itself  into  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  in  imitation  of  Debendra. 
Together  with  its  pecuniary  resources,  it  brought  also  to  this  institution 
its  habits  of  intellectual  activity;  so  that — thanks  to  the  new  element — 
the  work  of  Mohun  Roy  soon  resumed  a  progressive  course.  Still, 
even  in  1847,  tne  avowed  Brahmoists  did  not  number  a  thousand. 
At  that  date,  however,  a  crisis  occurred  which  seemed  to  presage  their 
dispersion,  but  which  became,  on  the  contrary,  the  chief  cause  of 

I.  Garcin  de  Tassy,  Histoire  de  la  Littcrature  Hindouie  et  Hindousianie. 
Paris,  1870.     2nd  Ed.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  151. 


236  THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA. 

their  subsequent  rapid  success  among  the  enlightened  classes  of  the 
country. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy  had  included  in  his  organization  all  who  admitted 
the  unity  of  God,  on  the  sole  condition  that  they  should  keep  up  no 
connection  whatever  with  Polytheistic  doctrines  and  practices.  Still, 
in  point  of  fact,  the  Brahmo  Somaj  was  a  simple  Hindu  sect,  since 
its  members  admitted  the  infallibility  of  the  Vedas.  The  prayers  and 
hymns  composing  its  entire  liturgy  were  profoundly  impressed  with 
the  Vedantic  spirit,  which  manifested  itself  in  the  guise  of  continual 
allusions  to  the  dogmas  of  metempsychosis  and  those  of  identity  with 
the  divine  essence.  Now  nothing  was  more  opposed  than  this  to  the 
tendencies  of  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and  his  friends,  who — possibly 
owing  to  the  influence  of  a  more  complete  European  education — 
had  reached  the  conception  of  a  personal  God  distinct  from  nature. 

The  new  comers  who  had  rapidly  attained  to  a  position  of  pre- 
eminence in  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  sought  at  first  the  confirmation  of 
their  views  in  the  Vedas  themselves.  It  has  been  said  that  anything 
and  everything  may  be  proved  from  the  Bible,  an  assertion  which 
would  apply  with  still  greater  force  to  the  Vedas.  The  Vedas — or 
more  correctly  the  Veda,  that  is  science—  are,  in  the  theology  of  the 
Brahmans,  regarded  as  the  direct  breath  of  God,  which  was  com- 
municated to  the  Richis,  the  bards  of  the  Aryan  migration,  and  trans- 
mitted by  them  from  mouth  to  mouth,  down  to  the  time  when  the 
Brahmans,  their  legitimate  successors,  judged  it  desirable  to  fix  the 
truths  of  this  divine  revelation  in  writing.  In  reality,  the  Vedas  form 
a  collection  of  innumerable  liturgies  and  theological  treatises  com- 
posed, as  a  rule,  by  unknown  authors,  the  most  recent  of  whom  lived 
at  the  dawn  of  our  era,  and  the  most  ancient  at  the  time  of  the  first 
Aryan  invasions  of  India.  It  will  be  easily  understood  that  among 
literary  fragments  so  varied  in  origin  and  date,  traces  are  to  be  found 
of  all  the  currents  of  thought  which  have  successively  or  simul- 
taneously contributed  to  the  formation  of  Hindu  beliefs.  These 
range  from  the  worship  of  the  deified  elements  of  nature  by  the  naive 
genius  of  the  Aryans,  up  to  the  most  abstract  connections  of  Panthe- 
ism or  even  of  pessimistic  Atheism,  developed  within  the  shadow  of 
the  temples  by  several  ages  of  philosophical  elaboration — from  the 
gross  superstitions  with  which  the  invaders  were  innoculated  in  their 
contact  with  Fetishism  and  foreign  idolatries,  up  to  the  minute  cere- 


THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  237 

monies  introduced  by  the  ritualism  of  the  Brahmans,  in  order  to  give 
a  sacred  sanction  to  the  religious  and  social  subjection  of  the  enslaved 
castes — the  whole  being  intensified  in  its  effect  by  the  presence  of  a 
profound  and  sincere  piety,  revealing  itself  in  mystic  aspirations 
towards  an  ideal  Being  and  suggesting  at  times,  as  Edgar  Quinet  re- 
marks, the  personal  and  living  God  of  the  Monotheistic  religions.1 

This  tendency  is  so  marked  in  certain  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda  that 
the  majority  of  Sanscrit  scholars  thought  at  first  they  had  discovered 
in  them,  not  the  natural  evolution  of  the  Hindu  mind  towards  the 
unity  and  simplicity  of  the  First  Cause,  but  the  last  trace,  as  a  sort 
of  feeble  echo,  of  some  primeval  Monotheistic  religion,  which  had 
existed  anterior  to  the  ancient  Naturalism. 

In  the  most  recent  portions  of  the  Vedaic  literature,  moreover, 
passages,  possessed  of  a  moral  and  philosophical  elevation,  that  the 
loftiest  metaphysical  system  of  our  epoch  would  not  repudiate,  are  to 
be  found  side  by  side  with  the  most  absurd  and  degrading  theories. 
Even  when  we  include  the  Puranas — that  supplementary  Veda  styled 
the  popular  Bible  of  the  Hindus — there  is  no  part  of  this  vast  sacred 
literature  which  does  not  constantly  recognize,  behind  the  changing 
and  transparent  physiognomy  of  its  gods,  that  Being  whom  one  pas- 
sage names  "  the  powerful  Lord,  immutable,  holy,  eternal,  and  of  a 
nature  always  true  to  itself,  who  reveals  himself  as  Brahma,  Vishnu 
or  Siva,  the  creator,  preserver  or  destroyer  of  the  world." 

At  the  time  when  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and  his  friends  resolved 
to  controvert  even  passages  from  the  Vedas  themselves,  they  began  by 
calling  in  question,  not  the  infallibility  of  the  sacred  texts,  but  the 
fidelity  of  the  partial  versions  in  their  own  and  their  opponents' 
possession.  And  here  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Vedas 
comprise  thousands  of  isolated  passages ;  that  the  knowledge  of  their 
most  important  parts  had  been  the  exclusive  monopoly  of  the  Brah- 
manic  caste ;  that  European  science  had  not  as  yet  made  the  true 
sense  of  the  Hindu  Scriptures  common  property,  even  in  India  itself; 
and  that,  finally,  they  were  written  in  a  dead  language,  Sanskrit,  but 

I.  We  may  cite,  as  examples,  the  well-known  hymn  to  Varuna  {Rig-Veda,  II., 
28),  which  bears  the  impress  of  so  intense  an  aspiration  after  moral  purity  and  so 
profound  a  sense  of  sin  that  M.  Pillon  has  called  it  a  Vedic  Kyrie  eleison  ;  or, 
further,  the  hymn,  "To  what  God  shall  we  sacrifice?"  {Rig-Veda,  X.,  121);  and 
the  hymn  on  the  origin  of  the  universe  {Rig-  Veda,  X.,  129). 


238  THEISM   IN   CONTEMPORARY   INDIA. 

little  known  even  to  native  theologians,  beyond  the  limits  of  a  few- 
centres  specially  devoted  to  the  study  of  sacerdotal  matters.  Hence 
the  Brahmo  Somaj  decided,  at  the  suggestion  of  Akhai  Kumar  Datta, 
the  editor  of  the  Tattvabodhini  Patrika,  to  commission  four  young 
pandits  to  copy,  at  Benares  itself,  the  four  Vedas,  of  which  the  sacred 
town  of  Brahmanism  alone  possessed  a  copy  claiming  to  be  complete 
and  authentic. 

This  undertaking  lasted  two  years,  and  when  its  result  was  com- 
municated to  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  no  one  could  avoid  the  saddening 
conviction  that,  side  by  side  with  sublime  precepts,  the  Vedas  em- 
bodied passages  forming  a  justification  for  the  grossest  superstition, — 
in  short,  a  collection  of  dogmas  utterly  irreconcileable  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  Monotheism. 

The  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures  was  now  courageously  thrown 
overboard,  and  the  Brahmo  Somaj  breaking  with  the  tradition  of 
Hinduism,  as  well  as  with  the  entire  notion  of  any  specially  revealed 
religion,  became  a  purely  Theistic  Church — the  first,  perhaps,  except 
the  Unitarian,  which  has  ever  acquired  a  serious  importance  in  the 
world.  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  caused  it  to  adopt  under  the  name  of 
Brahma  Dharma  "  the  rule  of  Theism,"  a  confession  of  faith,  which 
without  falling  into  an  exaggerated  dogmatism,  summed  up  the 
elementary  principles  of  all  worship  within  the  bounds  of  natural 
religion :  the  unity  and  personality  of  God ;  the  immortality  of  the 
soul ;  the  moral  efficacy  of  prayer ;  and  the  necessity  of  repentance 
to  ensure  restoration  from  the  effects  of  evil-doing.1  Up  to  this  time, 
the  most  important  part  of  their  worship,  that  is  to  say,  the  recital  of 
the  sacred  texts,  had  taken  place  among  the  Brahmans  with  closed 
doors,  and  the  adherents  of  any  other  caste  were  only  admitted  to 
hear  the  sermon  and  join  in  the  hymns.  Henceforth,  however,  the 
Brahmo  Somaj  made  no  distinction  between  its  members,  and  it  was 

I.  See  The  New  Dispensation  and  the  Sadharan  Brahmo  Somaj,  by  the  pandit 
Sivanath  Sastri.  Madras,  i88i,p.  10. — The  covenant,  or  constitution  of  Brahmoism, 
which  the  members  were  to  sign,  embodied  the  four  following  propositions : — 
(i)  In  the  beginning,  God  was  alone,  and  he  has  created  the  universe.  (2)  God  is 
intelligent,  infinite,  benevolent,  and  eternal  ;  he  governs  the  universe,  he  is  omni- 
scient, omnipresent,  the  refuge  of  all,  without  body,  immutable,  unique,  without  an 
equal,  all-powerful,  self-existent,  and  above  all  comparison.  (3)  It  is  by  venerating 
him,  and  by  this  alone,  that  we  can  attain  to  supreme  beatitude  in  this  world  and 
in  the  next.  (4)  To  love  him  and  do  the  things  that  please  him  constitute  the 
worship  we  owe  to  him. 


THEISM    IN   CONTEMPORARY    INDIA.  239 

recompensed  for  this  by  the  numerous  accessions  which  it  received, 
not  merely  in  Calcutta  but  also  in  the  provinces. 

Still  such  is  the  persistence  of  social  prejudices  that  the  greater  part 
of  the  Brahmoists  remained  faithful  to  the  prescriptions  of  caste 
sanctioned  by  the  ancient  faith,  and  notably  in  relation  to  the  im- 
portant question  of  marriage.  Even  more,  men  of  excellent  parts — 
a  state  of  things  not  peculiar  to  India  and  the  Brahmo  Somaj — 
continued  to  practice  in  their  families,  for  the  sake  of  appearance, 
ceremonies  which  they  denounced  as  contrary  to  reason  and  the 
dignity  of  man,  in  the  meetings  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj.  All  this 
happened  because  the  convictions  of  the  Brahmoists,  as  yet,  lacked 
that  fervour  which  is  ready  for  every  sacrifice  and  if  badly  directed 
too  often  ends  in  intolerance,  but  which  is  none  the  less  indispensable 
to  the  success  of  every  great  religion  or  social  reform.  The  Brahma 
Dharma  was  above  all  the  formula  of  a  philosophy ;  it  was  reserved 
for  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  to  make  of  it  the  gospel  of  a  religion. 


CHAPTER      XII. 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 


Keshub  Chunder  Sen — His  influence  on  the  religious  activity  of  the  Somaj  of 
Calcutta — Gradual  abandonment  of  the  distinctions  of  caste — Conservative  and 
Liberal  Brahmoists — Keshub's  controversy  with  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  on  the 
social  bearing  of  Brahmoist  reform — Schism  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  into  the  Adi 
Somaj  and  the  Somaj  of  India — Exuberance  of  religious  life  among  the  neo- 
Brahmoists — The  Brahmostabs — Inauguration  of  the  new  Mandir,  or  Temple — 
Keshub's  efforts  to  secure  a  recognition  of  the  validity  of  Brahmoist  marriages, 
the  suppression  of  premature  unions,  the  legal  consent  of  the  bride,  &c. — 
Institution  of  civil  marriage  as  optional  by  the  Native  Marriage  Act  of  1872 — 
The  foundation  by  Keshub  of  the  Indian  Reform  Association — Participation  of 
this  Society  in  all  the  movements  for  the  regeneration  of  India — Establishment 
of  schools,  emancipation  of  women,  repression  of  drunkenness — Means  of  propa- 
gandism  and  rapid  spread  of  Brahmoism  in  the  provinces — Institutions  charac- 
teristic of  the  different  Somajes. 


Keshub  Chunder  Sen  was  born  in  1838,  and  his  family  belonged  to 
the  Vaidya  caste.  His  father  who  had  filled  important  posts  in  the 
government  of  Bengal,  was  a  votary  of  Vishnu,  and  was  celebrated 
for  the  brilliancy  of  the  festivals  held  in  his  house  in  honour  of  the 
god.  It  is  from  these  surroundings,  which  were  anything  but  favour- 
able to  Monotheistic  tendencies,  that  the  young  Keshub  sprang  as 
Ram  Mohun  Roy  had  previously  done ;  but  attendance  at  the  Anglo- 
Indian  College  of  Calcutta  had  the  same  influence  upon  his  convic- 
tions as  the  teaching  of  the  Mohammedan  College  at  Patna  had  pro- 
duced upon  the  religious  ideas  of  his  predecessor.  When  hardly 
twenty  years  old,  Keshub  had  grouped  around  him  a  certain  number 
of  young  men  who  were  eager,  like  himself,  for  instruction  in  Western 
literature  and  philosophy.  It  was  then  that  one  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj  pamphlets,  falling  by  chance  into  his  hands,  revealed  to  him 
the  existence,  in  his  own  country,  of  the  ideal  Church  of  his  imagina- 
tion. His  adhesion  to  it  was  not  delayed,  and,  like  Debendra  Nath 
Tagore,  he  was  able  to  secure  the  allegiance  of  the  small  group  who 
were  already  accustomed  to  look  up  to  him  as  their  spiritual  guide. 

"There  are  two  sorts  of  Theism,"  says  one  of  the  most  faithful 
disciples  of  Keshub,  the  Baboo  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar.     "One 


242  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE  BRAHMO    SOMAJ. 

of  these  is  what  is  ordinarily  termed  Natural  Religion — the  faith  that 
is  formed  in  man's  mind  by  the  action  of  natural  phenomena  and 
laws  upon  its  faculties  and  instincts.  This  may  be  termed  Philo- 
sophical Theism  and  it  is  therefore  assailable  by  Philosophy.  The 
conception  and  principles  of  this  kind  of  Theism  are,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, changeable,  inasmuch  as  man's  ideas  on  natural  facts  and  laws 
are  subject  to  change.  The  second  division  is  Revealed  Theism — 
the  deep  spiritual  religion  produced  by  the  action  of  God's  spirit 
within  man's  soul.  This  religion  is  unchangeable  and  unassailable ; 
it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  science  and  ordinary  philosophy.  .  . 
The  first  Theism  is  man  seeking  God,  the  second  Theism  is  God 
seeking  man."1  Now  it  is  this  second  form  which  Keshub  insisted 
upon  in  the  Bramho  Somaj,  attaching  himself  to  what  Miss  S.  D. 
Collet  names  the  Augustinian  side  of  religion,  that  is  to  say  "  the 
passionate  thirst  for  God,  the  strong  sense  of  sin,  the  low  estimate  of 
the  merit  of  actions  and  of  mere  morality,  the  yearning  to  sink  self 
in  the  fathomless  ocean  of  divine  love." 

Keshub  possessed,  moreover,  the  true  temperament  of  a  reformer. 
Energetic  and  swayed  by  conviction,  endowed,  too,  with  eloquence 
which,  while  clear  and  persuasive,  was  at  the  same  time  coloured  and 
captivating,  he  joined  to  the  prestige  of  talent  and  knowledge  that 
innate  ascendency  which  furnishes  the  key  to  all  hearts  and  con- 
sciences. Equally  versed  in  the  native  dialects  and  in  the  English 
language,  he  combined  the  gravity  and  sweetness  of  Oriental  manners 
with  a  conventional  simplicity  and  an  activity  of  mind  altogether 
European. 

If  I  may  refer  to  the  impression  which  he  made  upon  me  a  few 
years  later,  he  was  assuredly,  of  all  the  personages  whom  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  getting  a  glimpse  of  in  India,  the  one  who  seemed  to 
me  to  best  personify  his  generation  and  the  change  wrought  by  the 
action  of  European  ideas  upon  the  tendencies  of  Hindu  society. 
Even  his  adversaries  never  denied  his  being  an  exceptionally  en- 
dowed man.  His  great  defect,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  was 
perhaps  that  of  believing  and  saying  this  himself. 

As  the  result  of  his  influence,  there  soon  appeared,  in  this  Ration- 
alistic Church,  an  intensity  of  religious  life  which  seems  everywhere 

I.  Indian  Mirror  of  the  25th  of  April,  1875. 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE    BRAHMO    SOMAj.  243 

else  to  have  remained  a  monopoly  of  the  sects  and  to  be  the  outcome 
of  their  miraculous  theology.  The  meetings  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj 
became  more  frequent  and  were  better  attended ;  a  number  of  new- 
comers were  attracted  by  the  reputation  of  the  young  preacher  and 
retained  by  the  seductive  charm  of  his  words.  A  true  revival  took 
place,  and,  as  a  first  consequence,  it  gave  to  the  members  of  the 
Brahmoist  Church  the  energy  needed  for  a  definitive  break  with  the 
practices  of  Hinduism. 

Debendra  Nath  Tagore  preached  by  example  in  the  month  of 
July,  1 86 1,  when  he  allowed  the  marriage  of  his  own  daughter  to  be 
celebrated  without  any  of  the  idolatrous  rites  required  by  the  tradition 
of  the  Brahmans.  In  the  following  year  he  renounced  the  domestic 
idol  which  he  had  up  to  that  time  tolerated,  under  his  roof,  and,  on 
the  initiative  of  Keshub,  he  discontinued  the  use  of  the  sacred  cord 
symbolic  of  caste,  during  divine  service. 

But  Keshub  wished  to  go  still  further  in  this  direction,  and  the  very 
day  on  which  he  was  chosen  an  assistant  minister  of  the  Somaj  of 
Calcutta,  he  ignored  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Vaidya  by  birth  and  went 
with  his  wife  to  dine  at  the  table  of  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  who,  in 
the  Brahmanic  hierarchy,  was  only  a  Pirali.  Now,  a  Brahman  may 
associate  with  persons  of  a  lower  clan,  or  even  of  an  inferior  caste,  for 
the  widest  variety  of  objects,  but  he  cannot  share  in  their  meals  with- 
out incurring  an  excommunication,  which  makes  an  alien  of  him  in 
his  family,  deprives  him  of  his  goods,  and  drives  him  from  his  home. 
In  vain,  too,  would  he  seek  to  attach  himself  to  the  group  from  asso- 
ciation with  which  his  loss  of  rank  had  been  occasioned  : — birth  alone 
can  give  caste.  He  would  fall,  therefore,  beneath  even  the  soudras 
into  that  degraded  herd  of  outcasts  who  no  longer  figure  in  the 
minutely  adjusted  hierarchy  of  Hindu  society. 

Formerly,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  least  infraction  of  the 
etiquette  of  caste,  even  if  involuntary,  could  be  atoned  for  at  the 
price  of  long  penitence  and  enormous  fines  paid  to  the  priests.  But 
English  rule  has  not  existed  in  vain  in  India.  The  sympathy  shown 
to  the  assistant  minister  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  in  his  disgrace  by  the 
most  enlightened  of  his  fellow-citizens,  soon  made  it  evident  that  for 
the  first  time  perhaps  since  the  social  insurrection  of  Buddha,  revolt 
against  the  prescriptions  of  caste  had  become  possible  in  Hindu 
society.     Some  time  afterwards,  when  Keshub  had  fallen  dangerously 


244  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF  THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

ill,  his  family  repented  of  the  course  they  had  taken,  and  agreed  to 
reinstate  him  in  his  patrimonial  rights. 

Scarcely  restored  to  health,  Keshub  proposed  to  make  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  Brahmanic  cord  obligatory  upon  the  ministers  of  the 
Brahmo  Somaj.  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  although  he  had  personally 
set  an  example  of  this  kind,  refused  to  make  it  an  indispensable  con- 
dition for  the  exercise  of  the  sacred  office.  Hence  there  resulted  a 
lively  controversy,  in  which  the  Brahmoists  were  to  be  seen  divided 
into  two  camps  under  the  respective  generalship  of  the  two  ministers. 
Both  parties  seemed  more  or  less  agreed  on  questions  of  principle. 
But  the  Conservatives  led  by  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  whom  so  many 
innovations  were  beginning  to  alarm,  maintained  that  the  Brahmo 
Somaj  should  confine  itself,  as  far  as  possible,  to  reforms  of  a  purely 
religious  character,  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  into  account  the 
existing  customs  and  that  the  complete  repudiation  of  social  distinc- 
tions was  contrary  to  the  traditions  as  well  as  to  the  national  spirit  of 
the  Hindus.  To  this  agreement  the  progressive  party  replied  with 
Keshub,  that  it  was  impossible  to  separate  religious  from  social  re- 
forms, that  before  God  all  class  distinctions  should  be  put  aside,  and 
that  a  Church,  feeling  itself  in  possession  of  truth,  should  proclaim 
it  in  its  entirety  with  neither  scruple  nor  hesitation. 

This  controversy  reached  a  climax,  when  Keshub  undertook 
to  officiate  at  the  marriage  of  a  Vaidya  with  a  young  widow  of  a 
different  caste,  after  which  the  whole  wedding  party,  including  the 
minister,  partook  of  the  same  repast.  The  scandal  this  caused  as- 
sumed such  proportions,  even  in  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  that  Keshub,  in 
despair  of  gaining  a  majority  in  favour  of  his  ideas,  voluntarily  quitted 
the  association  with  some  hundreds  of  adherents,  and  in  the  following 
year  completed  the  schism  by  founding  a  new  Church  under  the  title 
of  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  or  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  Calcutta,  which  subsequently  became 
known  by  the  name  of  Adi  (the  old)  Somaj. 

This  new  society  was  not  intended  to  be  merely  the  rival  of  the 
Church  of  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  in  Calcutta  itself;  it  aimed,  more- 
over at  the  organization  of  all  the  Brahmo  Somajes  of  the  country 
into  a  confederation,  of  which  it  was  to  be  the  centre.  "  We  see 
around  us,"  said  Keshub  in  his  inaugural  address  delivered  on  the 
nth  of  November,   1866,  "a  large  number  of  Brahmo  Somajes  in 


THE    SOCIAL    REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ.  245 

different  parts  of  the  country  for  the  congregational  worship  of  the 
one  true  God,  and  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  men  professing  the 
Brahmo  Faith ;  we  have  besides,  missionaries  going  about  in  all 
directions  to  preach  the  saving  truths  of  Brahma  Dharma;  books 
and  tracts  inculcating  these  truths  are  also  being  published  from  time 
to  time.  To  unite  all  such  Brahmos  and  form  them  into  a  body,  to 
reduce  their  individual  and  collective  labours  into  a  vast  but  well 
organized  system  of  unity  and  co-operation — this  is  all  that  is  thought 
to  be  accomplished.  .  .  .  We  must  endeavour  to  realize,  so  far 
as  it  is  in  our  power,  the  true  idea  of  the  Church  of  God." 

In  common  with  Presbyterian  Christians,  the  neo-Brahmos  would 
accept  no  head  but  God  himself;  still  Keshub  was  none  the  less  their 
real  chief,  under  the  title  of  secretary  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj 
and  minister  of  the  Calcutta  Congregation. 

Masters  of  their  own  actions  the  neo-Brahmos,  as  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  leadership  of  Keshub,  gave  themselves  up  to  an 
exuberance  of  religious  life  which  their  minister  did  not  seek  to 
moderate,  but  merely  to  regulate  by  the  institution  of  a  ritual  in  con- 
formity with  the  spirit  of  the  new  organization. 

The  weekly  service,  which  was  fixed  for  the  Sunday  to  correspond 
with  the  regular  stoppage  of  business  introduced  by  the  English  into 
the  habits  of  India,  was  henceforth  to  consist  of  prayers,  hymns,  a 
sermon  and  readings,  the  latter  being  borrowed  indifferently  from  the 
Vedas,  the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures,  the  Koran  and  the 
Zend  A  vesta,  according  to  the  pleasure  of  the  minister.1  This  was 
supplemented  by  a  "  family  service,"  which  each  Brahmo  could  use 
daily  in  his  own  house.  As  to  the  ritual  previously  in  use  for  the 
ceremonies  of  initiation,  marriage,  cremation,  jatkarma  (thanksgiving 
after  the  birth  of  a  child)  and  namJtaram  (the  choice  of  a  name), 
they  were  simply  modified  by  the  elimination  of  formulas  not  in 
harmony  with  the  programme  of  the  reforming  party.  The  ceremony 
of  shrddha,  a  funeral  service  closely  allied  to  the  theory  of  metem- 
psychosis, was  completely  remodelled  in  keeping  with  the  doctrines 
professed  by  the  Brahmos  on  the  future  destiny  of  the  soul.     Finally 

I.  Here  is  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  Order  of  Service: — I,  Hymn;  2,  Invoca- 
tion; 3,  Hymn;  4,  Adoration;  5,  Silent  communion;  6,  Prayer  in  common 
or  with  responses ;  7,  Prayer  for  universal  good ;  8,  Hymn  ;  9,  Reading  from 
sacred  books  ;  10,  Sermon;   11,  Prayer;  12,  Benediction;  13,  Hymn. 


246  THE    SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO    SOMAJ. 

Keshub  instituted  a  series    of  brahmo stabs  (festivals  of  the  Lord) 
which  recur  at  stated  periods  and  last  an  entire  day.1 

These  festivals  appear  to  have  exercised  an  influence  which  is  only 
to  be  explained  by  the  contagious  nature  of  even  the  most  rationalistic 
form  of  mysticism.  "  The  change  produced  in  certain  persons  who 
were  present  on  the  occasion  of  these  Brahmostabs  is  truly  astonishing," 
wrote  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar  in  1868.  "The  humility,  the  hope, 
the  prayerfulness,  reverence,  love,  faith,  and  joy,  that  flow  in  celestial 
currents  at  such  times,  catch  men's  souls  by  a  sort  of  holy  contagion. 
.  .  .  .  Men  and  women  are  similarly  affected ;  new  converts  are 
every  time  brought  in,  old  converts  are  regenerated  and  refreshened. 
Those  Brahmos  who  desire  to  know  what  it  is  to  see  and  feel  God  (we 
speak  with  the  humble  reverence  of  sinners)  should  come  and  attend 
one  of  the  Brahmostabs."2  Sometimes,  at  the  close  of  the  ceremony, 
the  worshippers  formed  into  a  procession,  and,  with  the  minister  at 
their  head,  paraded  the  streets  of  the  native  quarter,  singing  hymns 
to  the  glory  of  the  one  and  only  God. 

A  part  of  these  innovations,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  pandit  Sivanath 
Sastri,  were  due  to  the  better  understanding  which  was  reached  at  the 

1.  The  following  is  a  description  of  one  of  these  festivals,  the  Bhadrostab  of 
1 87 1,  taken  from  the  Indian  Mirror  of  the  22nd  of  August,  1871,  and  it  at  least 
proves  the  fervour  of  those  who  took  part  in  it  :— 

Precisely  at  six  o'clock  a  hymn  was  sung  in  the  upper  gallery  of  the  Mandir  to 
announce  the  solemnities  of  the  day.  Others  followed  with  the  harmonium  ac- 
companiment, and  thus  the  singing  continued  from  hymn  to  hymn  till  the  com- 
mencement of  the  service  which,  including  the  sermon,  lasted  from  7  to  10  o'clock. 
A  part  of  the  congregation  then  withdrew  for  refreshment,  but  the  remainder  sur- 
rounded the  Vtei  to  ask  the  minister  for  an  explanation  of  various  points  of  his 
sermon.  At  noon,  when  the  meeting  was  again  full,  four  pandits  came  forward 
and  recited  Sanscrit  texts  in  succession.  At  one  o'clock,  the  minister  gave  an 
address  on  the  following  four  points  :— (1)  The  Veda  is  inferior  to  the  true  Scrip- 
ture, in  which  the  eternal  God  reveals  himself;  (2)  The  sage  must  everywhere 
reject  error  and  retain  truth ;  (3)  It  is  the  spirit  or  essence  of  all  Scriptures,  great 
and  small,  which  should  be  sought,  for  this  is  truth ;  (4)  To  find  God,  we  must 
turn  to  the  Scriptures,  to  the  sages  and  to  conscience.  Then  came  several  philo- 
sophical theses  and  religious  expositions  by  their  authors.  Hymns,  meditations 
and  prayers  in  common  brought  the  congregation  to  close  upon  7  o'clock,  when 
seven  new  Brahmos  were  to  be  initiated  by  a  special  ceremony.  This,  with  a  con- 
nected sermon,  did  not  last  less  than  two  hours  and  the  meeting,  if  we  are  to  believe 
the  chronicler,  showed  no  signs  of  weariness  after  these  fifteen  hours  of  continuous 
devotion, but  separated  singing  that  it  had  not  even  then  had  enough  :  "The  heart 
wishes  not  to  return  home." 

2.   Indian  Mirror  of  the  1st  of  July,  1868. 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE    BRAHMO   SOMAJ.  247 

commencement  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  between  the  party  led  by 
Keshub  and  the  school  of  Bhakti,  principally  represented  in  Bengal 
by  the  followers  of  Chaitanya.  The  neo-Brahmos  borrowed  from  the 
latter,  for  instance,  the  hymns  which  they  sang  in  their  Sankirtans, 
and  though  these  lyrical  compositions  were  doubtless  freed  from  all 
Polytheistic  allusion,  they  bore  the  impress  of  that  sweet  mysticism 
which  is  at  once  the  charm  and  the  peril  of  the  Hindu  genius.  "The 
metres  are  peculiar  and  usually  vary  in  the  same  hymn,"  says  Miss 
S.  D.  Collet,  "  and  the  wild  recitative-like  tunes  are  such  as  sorely 
task  a  European  ear  to  apprehend  and  retain ;  but  however  ineffective 
they  may  sound  to  us,  a  very  great  effect  is  produced  by  them  in  India, 
especially  when  sung  in  unison  by  hundreds  of  believers,  all  warmly 
moved  by  the  sentiments  expressed."1 

The  Mandir,  or  Church,  which  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  built  for 
itself  was  not  finished  until  1869.  The  opening  service  took  place  on 
the  29th  of  August,  in  the  presence  of  a  very  large  and  enthusiastic 
audience.  Keshub  read  on  that  occasion  the  following  declaration, 
which  I  reproduce  in  full,  because  it  contains  a  clear  exposition  of  his 
views  at  the  time  : — 

"To-day,  by  Divine  grace,  the  public  worship  of  God  is  instituted 
in  these  premises,  for  the  use  of  the  Brahmo  community.  Every  day, 
or  at  least  every  week,  the  one  only  God,  without  a  second,  the  Perfect 
and  the  Infinite,  the  Creator  of  all,  omnipresent,  almighty,  all-knowing, 
all-merciful,  and  all-holy,  will  be  worshipped  here. 

"  No  man  or  inferior  being  or  material  object  shall  be  worshipped 
here  as  identical  with  God  or  like  unto  God  or  as  an  incarnation  of 
God,  and  no  prayer  or  hymn  shall  be  chanted  unto  or  in  the  name  of 
any  except  God.  No  carved  or  painted  image,  no  external  symbol 
which  has  been  or  may  hereafter  be  used  by  any  sect  for  the  purpose 
of  worship  or  the  remembrance  of  a  particular  event,  shall  be  pre- 
served here.  No  creature  shall  be  sacrificed  here.  Neither  eating 
nor  drinking  nor  any  manner  of  mirth  or  amusement  shall  be  allowed 
here.  No  created  being  or  object  that  has  been  or  may  hereafter  be 
worshipped  by  any  sect  shall  be  ridiculed  or  contemned  in  the  course 
of  the  Divine  service  to  be  conducted  here.  No  book  shall  be  acknow- 
ledged or  revered  as  the  infallible  word  of  God ;  yet  no  book  that  has 

I.  See  some  translations  of  these  hymns  in  The  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1877, 
page  50. 


248  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

or  may  hereafter  be  acknowledged  by  any  sect  to  be  infallible  shall  be 
ridiculed  or  contemned.  No  sect  shall  be  vilified,  ridiculed  or  hated. 
No  prayer,  hymn,  sermon  or  discourse,  to  be  delivered  or  used  here, 
shall  countenance  or  encourage  any  manner  of  idolatry,  sectarianism 
or  sin.  Divine  service  shall  be  conducted  here  in  such  spirit  and 
manner  as  may  enable  all  men  and  women,  irrespective  of  distinctions 
of  caste,  colour  and  condition,  to  unite  in  one  family,  eschew  all  man- 
ner of  error  and  sin,  and  advance  in  wisdom,  faith  and  righteousness. 
The  congregation  of  the  Brahma  Mandir  of  India  shall  worship  God 
in  these  premises  according  to  the  rules  and  principles  hereinbefore 
set  forth.     Peace  !  Peace !  Peace  ! " 

The  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  had  soon  made  their  organization  the 
rallying-point  of  the  great  majority  of  the  Somaj es  which  already  ex- 
isted in  the  provinces,  and  the  number  of  their  adherents  became  in 
a  short  time  greater  than  that  of  the  original  Association.  There  was, 
however,  a  legal  obstacle  which  deterred  many  from  the  public  adop- 
tion of  Brahmoism,  even  after  they  had  accepted  its  doctrines.  The 
Indian  law,  for  instance,  sanctioned  only  religious  marriages — that  is, 
marriages  regularly  celebrated  according  to  the  rites  of  some  recog- 
nized religious  body.  What  was  there  binding,  therefore,  in  unions  cele- 
brated without  the  formalities  required  by  the  traditional  religion  ? 
The  importance  of  this  question  was  soon  seen  from  a  decision  given 
by  Mr.  T.  H.  Cowie,  the  Attorney-General  of  India,  to  the  effect  that 
Brahmoist  marriages  were  not  valid  and  that  the  children  born  of 
such  unions  were  illegitimate.  The  Brahmos  immediately  drew  up  a 
petition,  praying  the  Government  to  place  their  new  ritual  on  a  com- 
mon footing  with  the  Hindu  rites. 

Nothing  was  more  just  than  this,  nothing  simpler  in  appearance. 
Hence,  in  1868,  notwithstanding  the  reserve  and  the  slowness  with 
which  the  English  Government  ventures  to  interfere  with  the  develop- 
ment of  national  traditions  and  customs,  above  all  among  its  Asiatic 
subjects,  Sir  H.  Sumner  Maine,  who  presided  over  the  department  of 
justice  in  the  Vice-regal  Cabinet,  introduced  a  Bill  which  exceeded 
even  the  request  of  the  petitioners  by  making  civil  marriages  optional 
among  the  natives  of  India — that  is  to  say,  the  recognized  religious 
bodies  retained  the  right  to  celebrate  legal  marriages,  but  it  was  lawful 
for  every  one,  Christians  excepted,  to  marry,  without  any  religious 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF  THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ.  249 

ceremony,  before  a  civil  functionary  or  registrar  appointed  by  the 
Government. 

The  project  naturally  called  forth  from  the  orthodox  of  every  creed 
protestations  similar  to  those  with  which  we  have  long  been  familiar 
in  Europe.  Parsees  and  Brahmans  forgot  their  differences  to  de- 
nounce in  common  the  danger  to  which  religion,  the  family  and 
society  were  about  to  be  exposed  if  their  co-religionists  were  authorized 
to  do  without  priestly  intervention  in  the  most  solemn  act  of  life.  In 
the  presence  of  this  agitation,  the  Government  withdrew  the  Bill,  and 
it  was  not  till  the  commencement  of  187 1,  after  an  interval  of  two 
years,  that  the  successor  of  Sir  H.  Sumner  Maine,  Mr.  Fitzjames 
Stephen,  proposed  a  new  measure,  "The  Brahmo  Marriage  Act," 
which  was  drawn  up  with  the  conditions  demanded  by  the  Brahmos. 
By  thus  seeking  to  give  validity  to  the  ritual  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
the  Government  was  thereby  sanctioning  certain  reforms  of  the  greatest 
importance  for  India. 

In  spite,  for  instance,  of  the  formal  text  of  the  Vedas,  which  re- 
cognize a  certain  independence  in  women,  these  have  fallen,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  Mussulman  invasions,  into  a  condition  of  subjection 
which  leaves  them  no  preference  in  the  choice  of  a  lord  and  master. 
Brahmoism,  which  has  done  so  much  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
Hindu  woman,  could  not  pass  over  such  a  disregard  of  the  equality 
of  the  sexes,  and,  in  the  reform  of  its  ritual,  it  at  once  introduced 
into  the  marriage  service  the  condition,  hitherto  unheard  of,  that  the 
consent  of  the  woman  had  been  "  freely  given  before  God,  the  All- 
powerful."  Another  innovation,  contained  in  the  proposed  measure 
and  made  equally  at  the  suggestion  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  who 
had  long  been  preaching  against  the  scourge  of  premature  marriages, 
fixed  a  minimum  of  18  years  for  young  men  and  14  for  girls.  Finally, 
the  Bill  introduced  monogamy  into  the  Hindu  code,  by  making  it 
obligatory  upon  all  those  who  might  avail  themselves  of  the  provisions 
of  the  new  Act. 

Although  restricted  to  a  special  sect,  the  new  Bill  met  with  the 
same  opposition  as  the  preceding  one,  and  it  may  be  mentioned  as  a 
characteristic  detail,  that  the  members  of  the  Adi  Somaj  were  among 
its  bitterest  opponents.  Two  thousand  persons  professing  to  be 
Brahmos  went  so  far  as  to  petition  the  Legislative  Council  of  India, 
praying  that  the  measure  might  be  rejected  as  useless,  excessive,  and 


250  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

dangerous.  A  middle  course  between  the  proposal  of  Mr.  Stephen 
and  that  of  Sir  H.  S.  Maine  was  therefore  adopted.  The  Legislative 
Council  struck  the  name  of  the  Brahmos  from  the  Bill  and  made  it 
applicable,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Native  Marriage  Act,"  to  "  persons 
who  do  not  profess  the  Christian,  Jewish,  Hindu,  Mohammedan, 
Parsi,  Buddhist,  Sikh  or  Jaina  religion,"1 — a  negative  enumeration 
calculated  to  re-assure  the  adherents  of  the  different  religious  bodies 
against  the  abandonment  of  their  altars  by  .sceptical  or  impatient 
bridegrooms.2 

The  very  vehemence  of  the  opposition  which  the  neo-Brahmos  had 
been  compelled  to  overcome  in  obtaining  legal  sanction  for  their 
marriages,  could  not  fail  to  advance  their  cause,  since  it  brought  them 
under  the  notice  of  all  who  were  seeking  an  agency  for  social  and 
religious  regeneration,  as  Keshub  himself  had  formerly  done.  Imme- 
diately after  his  return  from  the  journey  he  made  to  England,  with 
four  disciples  at  the  end  of  1870,  the  minister  of  the  Bharatbharsia 
Somaj  founded  at  Calcutta  the  Indian  Reform  Association,  "with  a 
view  to  promote  the  moral  and  social  reform  of  the  natives  of  India." 
Open  to  all  the  natives  without  distinction  of  race  or  creed,  but  com- 
posed chiefly  of  Brahmos,  it  was  divided  into  five  sections  under  the 
following  heads  :  (1)  The  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  women  ;  (2)  edu- 
cation ;  (3)  cheap  literature;  (4)  temperance;  (5)  philanthropical 
activities. 

From  its  commencement,  this  society  was  to  be  found  at  the  head 
of  all  the  movements  set  on  foot  to  secure  the  moral  and  material  re- 

1.  A  somewhat  numerous  sect  in  the  East  of  India  who  profess  doctrines 
bordering  on  those  of  Buddhism. 

2.  Here  is  the  text  of  the  declaration  which  the  new  law,  promulgated  on  the 
22nd  of  March,  1872,  and  requires  to  be  signed  by  the  contracting  parties  in  the 
presence  of  the  registrar  and  three  witnesses : — "I,  A.  B.,  hereby  declare  as  follows  : 
(1)  I  am  at  the  present  time  unmarried;  (2)  I  do  not  profess  the  Christian,  Jewish, 
Hindu,  Mohammedan,  Parsi,  Buddhist,  Sikh  or  Jaina  religion  ;  (3)  I  have  com- 
pleted my  age  of  eighteen  (or  fourteen)  years;  (4)  I  am  not  related  to  C.  D.  (the 
other  contracting  party)  in  any  degree  of  consanguinity  or  affinity  which  would, 
according  to  the  law  to  which  I  am  subject  or  to  which  the  said  C.  D.  is  subject, 
render  a  marriage  between  us  illegal ;  (5)  and  (for  cases  where  the  legal  age  or 
majority  is  not  attained)  the  consent  of  N.  M.,  my  father  (or  guardian  as  the  case 
may  be)  has  been  given  to  the  marriage  between  myself  and  C.  D.  and  has  not  been 
revoked ;  (6)  I  am  aware  that  if  any  statement  in  this  declaration  is  false,  and,  if 
in  making  such  statement,  I  either  know  or  believe  it  to  be  false,  or  do  not  believe 
it  to  be  true,  I  am  liable  to  imprisonment  and  also  to  fine."  (See  The  Brahmo 
Year  Book  for  1879). 


THE   SOCIAL    REFORMS    OF   THE    BRAHMO    SOMAJ.  251 

generation  of  India.  The  education  of  women  and  the  suppression 
of  intemperance  seem  to  have  specially  engaged  its  attention.  In 
1 87 1,  it  founded  on  behalf  of  the  native  women,  an  adult  school  and 
also  a  training  college,  to  which  was  attached  a  girls'  elementary- 
school,  to  serve  as  a  means  for  the  acquisition  of  experience.     By 

1875,  tne  students  of  the  normal  college  had  formed  among  them- 
selves a  mutual  instruction  society,  which  arranged  for  periodical 
lectures  under  the  direction  of  Keshub,  and  published  its  transactions 
in  the  organ  of  the  Association,  the  Bamabodhini  Pafrikd,  which  was 
widely  circulated  among  the  families  of  Bengal.  Another  educational 
institution,  the  Bengal  Ladies'  School,  was  opened  at  Calcutta  in 

1876,  to  prepare  governesses  for  the  examination,  which  had  been 
organized  by  the  Government ;  and  among  the  students  who  at  once 
gave  in  their  names,  were  four  widows.  Together  with  these  schools 
Keshub  founded  in  1882,  the  Bhdrat  Assam,  a  sort  of  boarding  house 
to  serve  as  a  home  for  native  women  desirous  of  living  in  common 
under  the  protection  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj. 

These  institutions,  which  were  imitated  in  many  particulars  by  the 
local  congregations,  have  had  as  their  immediate  result,  not  only  the 
improved  condition  of  women  among  the  disciples  of  Brahmoism, 
but  their  existence  has,  moreover,  indirectly  provided  the  sex  with  a 
solid  vantage  ground  in  the  struggles  they  have  to  carry  on  against 
the  dominant  religions  of  India.  Miss  Collet  states  in  her  Year  Book 
for  1876,  that  the  Brahmoist  women  rival  the  originators  of  the  move- 
ment, in  their  activity  and  enthusiasm.  Now,  the  more  a  reforming 
movement  comes  into  collision  with  national  customs  and  traditions, 
the  more  necessary  is  the  co-operation  of  the  feminine  element,  to 
enable  it  to  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  social  environment.  It 
is  by  woman's  agency  that  new  ideas  take  possession  of  the  family, 
and  it  is  through  the  family  that  the  regeneration  of  society  com- 
mences. The  Brahmos  have  seized  upon  a  truth  here,  which  is  too 
often  overlooked  in  European  countries. 

Meanwhile  the  Indian  Reform  Association  was  also  applying  itself, 
with  no  less  success,  to  a  search  for  a  remedy  against  the  habit  of  in- 
temperance, which  is  a  recent  vice  in  India.  Before  the  arrival  of  the 
English,  it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  Hindus  and  the  Moham- 
medans vied  with  each  other  in  sobriety,  which  is,  moreover,  enjoined 
by  the  nature  of  the  climate.     With  European  civilization  the  taste 


252  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

for  fermented  liquors  unhappily  introduced  itself,  and  for  the  last  third 
of  a  century  drunkenness  has  been  extending  through  India  like  a 
deadly  leprosy. 

The  Association  began  its  work  by  establishing  a  journal,  Mad  na 
Garal?  (Wine  or  Poison?)  and  by  organizing  lectures  for  inculcating 
abstention  from  strong  drinks.  But  these  efforts  not  having  produced 
sufficient  results,  Keshub,  after  making  an  inquiry  himself  in  all  parts 
of  Bengal,  presented  a  petition  to  the  Governor-General,  signed  by 
16,200  Bengalese,  in  which  he  requested  the  Government  to  place  re- 
strictions on  the  sale  of  fermented  beverages.  The  prayer  of  the 
petitioners  was  granted,  on  the  revision  of  the  general  tariff  in  1876, 
when  the  duty  on  the  importation  of  wines  and  spirits  was  consider- 
ably raised ;  besides  this,  in  the  following  year,  a  special  measure  was 
passed  by  the  Legislature,  which  restricted  the  number  of  wine  shops, 
prohibited  the  clandestine  sale  of  alcoholic  drinks,  declared  public- 
house  debts  unrecoverable  by  legal  means  and  forbade  dealers  in  such 
beverages  to  accept  goods  as  a  pledge  of  payment.  And  finally  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal  was  intrusted  with  the  power  to 
transfer  to  the  justices  of  the  peace,  in  any  locality  he  might  think 
fit,  the  right  to  withdraw  the  license  from  public-houses.1 

These  examples  show  how  largely  the  Brahmos  had  become  an 
embodiment  of  the  reforming  spirit  of  native  society,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Anglo-Indian  Government.  The  late  Viceroy,  Lord  Northbrook, 
did  them  ample  justice  in  this  respect  when  on  his  departure  from 
Calcutta  in  18 76,2  he  publicly  expressed,  to  their  secretary,  the  lively 
sympathy  with  which  he  regarded  their  moral  and  social  labours, 
"  though,  of  course,  theologically  he  differed  from  them  in  opinion." 

Meanwhile  the  religious  proselytism  of  Brahmoism  went  on  hand- 
in-hand  with  its  social  activities.  People  came  from  all  parts  to  hear 
the  fervent  and  inspired  utterances  of  Keshub,  who,  on  certain  occa- 
sions, drew  together  audiences  numbering  from  two  to  three  thousand 
persons.  At  the  same  time,  innumerable  tracts,  containing  prayers, 
sermons,  lectures,  and  moral  or  religious  dissertations,  were  distributed 
all  over  the  country  with  that  indefatigable  prodigality,  the  secret  of 
which  our  reformers  had  borrowed  from  the  Bible  Societies  of  England. 

1.  The  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1876. 

2.  The  vice-regal  sceptre  of  India  changes  hands  every  few  years,  and  two 
viceroys — Lord  Lytton  and  Lord  Ripon — have  completed  their  term  of  office  since 
Lord  Northbrook's  rule  came  to  an  end.  —  Translator. 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO  SOMAJ.  253 

But  it  was  above  all  by  means  of  missionaries  that  Brahmoism 
extended  its  conquests  in  the  interior  of  the  peninsula.  These 
missionaries,  who  are  trained  in  a  theological  institute  established  for 
that  purpose,  aim  at  maintaining  the  faith  of  their  own  people  and  at 
extending  their  doctrines  among  others.  Every  year,  towards  the 
time  of  the  principal  Brahmostab,  they  meet  in  conference  at  Calcutta, 
and  set  out  thence  to  the  very  extremities  of  India,  following  a  route 
traced  out  beforehand.  Visiting  the  congregations  already  in  existence, 
they  also  seek  everywhere  to  found  new  ones.  Their  families  they  leave 
behind,  at  the  expense  of  the  community,  so  that  they  may  be  free  to 
devote  themselves  exclusively  to  the  interests  of  the  Church.  Stopping 
wherever  there  is  any  hope  of  a  sympathetic  or  even  of  an  attentive 
hearing,  they  preach  the  good  word  in  the  public  squares,  beneath  a 
tree,  on  the  edge  of  a  pond,  in  the  midst  of  a  fair  or  even  on  the  roof 
of  a  house.  In  some  instances,  they  request  one  of  their  co-religionists 
to  assemble  a  few  friends  in  his  own  house,  where  they  worship  with 
closed  doors.  As  soon  as  they  have  in  anyway  brought  together  a 
nucleus  of  followers,  they  organize  them  into  a  regular  congregation, 
which  begins  at  once  to  collect  funds  for  building  a  mandir. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Brahmans,  or,  speaking  generally, 
the  orthodox  Hindus,  are  slow  to  create  every  kind  of  embarrassment 
for  them.  More  than  once,  especially  in  Bengal,  the  populace  have 
been  seen  to  interrupt  and  break  up  their  meetings ;  they  have  even 
taken  possession  of  and  burnt  the  building  after  maltreating  the  con- 
gregation, as  was  the  case  at  Cagmari  in  187 1.  But  these  acts  of 
violence,  which  are  repugnant  to  Hindu  manners,  seldom  occur  and 
never  happen  a  second  time  in  the  same  place.  The  opposition  shows 
itself  more  frequently  in  the  shape  of  those  social  excommunications 
which  the  law  is  powerless  to  foresee  and  to  repress.  Some  years  ago, 
for  instance,  an  Association  was  formed  in  Bengal,  the  members  of 
which  pledged  themselves  to  maintain  no  social  relations  whatever 
with  the  adherents  of  Brahmoism,  even  though  such  persons  should  be 
their  own  nearest  relatives.  In  some  localities  the  shop-keepers,  bar- 
bers and  others  refused  to  accept  the  Brahmos  as  customers.  These 
facts,  however,  are  not  specially  applicable  to  India  alone,  for  they 
are  to  be  seen  manifesting  themselves  every  day  in  the  Catholic  vil- 
lages of  Belgium,  at  the  expense  of  the  Free-thinkers  domiciled  there. 
Still,  persecutions  of  this  kind,  whether  direct  or  indirect,  were  power- 


254  THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF  THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ. 

less  to  arrest  the  progress  of  Brahmoism,  and  during  the  year  1876 
alone  the  number  of  Somajes  increased  from  108  to  128.1 

All  these  congregations,  scattered  as  they  are  throughout  India, 
seek  more  or  less  to  imitate  the  parent  congregation.  Speaking 
generally,  the  influence  exercised  by  each  Somaj  depends  less  upon 
the  number  of  its  members  than  upon  their  zeal  and  activity.  Small 
congregations,  especially  in  remote  districts,  often  become  ardent 
centres  of  proselytism,  sending  missionaries  in  all  directions  and 
creating  libraries  and  even  schools  for  the  use  of  the  neighbouring 
populations. 

Here  is  Miss  Collet's  description  of  the  principal  institutions  which 
characterize  a  Somaj  in  its  full  development : — 

A. — Religion,  (i)  Common  worship  at  least  once  a  week,  but 
generally  at  shorter  intervals;  (2)  Religious  festivals  on  special 
occasions ;  (3)  The  use  of  an  order  of  service  in  celebration  of 
births,  marriages  and  funerals;  (4)  A  series  of  religious  dis- 
cussions; (5)  A  Theistic  library;  (6)  An  organization  for  spread- 
ing the  principles  of  Brahmoism,  carried  on  by  means  of 
missionaries,  pamphlets  and  a  journal. 

B. — Philanthropy,  (i)  Distribution  of  alms;  (2)  Dispensaries  for 
the  sick ;  (3)  Associations  for  checking  intemperance,  early 
marriages,  &c. 

C. — Education,  (i)  Various  agencies  for  the  instruction  of  women, 
such  as  lectures,  special  publications,  ladies'  associations,  &c. ; 
(2)  Schools  for  both  sexes;  (3)  Night  schools  for  the  working 
classes.2 

When  I  visited  Calcutta  at  the  end  of  1876,  the  question  of  holding 
a  general  assembly  was  under  consideration.  It  was  proposed  that  the 
conference  should  consist  of  delegates  from  all  the  congregations 
affiliated  to  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj,  and  the  proposition  was  carried 
into  effect  on  the  23rd  of  the  following  September,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Keshub.     The  basis  of  a  representative  organization  for  the 

1.  Of  this  number  61  were  in  Bengal,  where  some  towns  possessed  two.  At 
Bengalore,  a  few  officers  of  the  native  camp  had  established  a  military  Somaj  with 
a  school  for  the  daughters  of  the  soldiers.  At  Lahore,  the  wife  of  the  minister  had 
commenced  a  congregation  consisting  exclusively  of  women,  in  which  she  herself 
officiated. 

2.  Preface  to  The  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1880. 


THE   SOCIAL   REFORMS   OF   THE   BRAHMO   SOMAJ.  255 

regulation  of  the  general  interests  of  the  neo-Brahmo  Church  was 
agreed  upon  by  this  assembly,  and  it  was  arranged  to  hold  another 
meeting  the  following  year  to  complete  the  work  thus  commenced. 

But  this  arrangement  was  made  without  any  knowledge  of  the  cir- 
cumstances which  were  about  to  endanger,  if  not  the  cause  of 
Brahmoism,  at  least  the  unity  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj  and  the 
prestige  of  its  founder.  It  is  often  in  the  hour  of  greatest  prosperity 
that  Churches,  like  States,  find  themselves  shaken  to  their  founda- 
tions, by  an  excessive  application  of  the  principles  which  have  formed 
their  strength  and  greatness. 


CHAPTER     XIII 


THE  ECLECTICISM  OF  THE  BRAHMA  DHARMA  IN  ITS 
STRUGGLE  WITH  HINDU  MYSTICISM. 


Theodicy  and  Morals  of  Brahmoism — Its  relation  to  the  schools  of  Vedantine 
Philosophy  and  German  Idealism — Rationalistic  Eclecticism  of  the  Brahma 
Dharma — Mystical  theories  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  on  the  mission  of  great 
men  and  the  nature  of  inspiration  and  prayer — Asceticism  in  the  Bharatbharsia 
Somaj — Keshub's  letter  to  Miss  Collet — The  Bairagya  movement — Keshub's 
sacerdotal  tendencies — The  opposition  they  called  forth — Proposed  marriage  of 
Keshub's  daughter  to  the  young  Maharajah  of  Couch-Behar — Dissatisfaction 
Caused  among  the  Brahmos  by  the  immature  age  of  the  young  couple — Inci- 
dents of  the  wedding  at  the  Court  of  Couch-Behar — Keshub's  concessions  to 
the  nuptial  practices  of  Hinduism — Attempt  of  his  Brahmo  opponents  to  bring 
about  his  deposition  at  Calcutta — Founding  of  the  Sadharan  Somaj — Programme 
of  the  new  Brahmoist  Church — Its  rapid  development. 


Both  as  theodicy  and  morals  Brahmoism  springs,  at  once,  from  the 
Vedantine  Idealism,  which  is  still  the  dominant  philosophy  of  the 
enlightened  Hindus ;  from  German  Idealism,  which  the  writings  of 
Carlyle  and  Coleridge  have  popularized  even  in  India ;  and,  at  a  later 
date,  from  English  Theism  and  American  Transcendentalism.  In 
imitation  of  this  latter  the  Brahma  Dharma  declares  that  "  intuition 
is  the  root  of  Brahmoism."  It  consequently  admits  of  two  methods 
for  the  attainment  of  truth.  It  asserts  that  the  genuine  scriptures 
given  by  God  are  two  in  number  :  the  book  of  Nature  and  the  ideas 
implanted  in  the  mind  of  man.  "  The  wisdom,  the  power,  the  good- 
ness of  God  are  written,  it  declares,  in  letters  of  gold  upon  the  face 
of  the  universe :  we  know  God  by  the  study  of  his  works.  In  the 
second  place  all  fundamental  truths  are  met  with  in  the  spiritual  con- 
stitution of  man,  as  primordial,  self-evident  convictions." 

The  God  of  Brahmoism  is  the  Ultimate  Being,  infinite  in  Time  and 
Space,  the  Creator  and  Preserver  of  all  things,  who  is  both  just  and 
merciful.  Brahmoism  formally  rejects  the  doctrine  of  Incarnation. 
We  read  in  the  Brahma  Dharma  for  instance  :  That  God  never  makes 
himself  man  by  assuming  the  human  form.  His  divinity  dwells  in  all 
men  though  it  specially  manifests  itself  in  some.  Thus  Jesus  Christ, 
Mohammed,  Nanak,  Chaitanya  and  all  the  great  religious  reformers 


258  THE   ECLECTICISM   OF   THE   BRAHMA   DHARMA 

of  different  epochs,  have  rendered  eminent  services  to  their  fellows  in 
the  name  of  religion,  and  possess  a  claim  upon  the  gratitude  and  love 
of  all.  They  were  neither  absolutely  holy  nor  infallible,  they  were 
only  gifted  men. 

Brahmoism  distinguishes  between  four  kinds  of  duty :  (i)  Duty 
towards  God :  faith,  love,  worship,  the  practice  of  virtue,  &c. ;  (2) 
duties  to  ourselves  :  the  preservation  of  health,  the  pursuit  of  know- 
ledge, holiness,  &c. ;  (3)  duties  in  relation  to  our  fellows :  truth, 
gratitude,  the  love  of  our  neighbour,  justice,  the  fulfilment  of  our 
engagements,  benevolence  in  the  most  extended  sense,  &c. ;  (4)  duties 
towards  the  inferior  animals,  such  as  kind  and  humane  treatment. 

Brahmoism  is  naturally  an  eclectic  and  universal  religion.  The 
Brahma  Dharma  proscribes  the  distinctions  of  caste  and  declares  that 
all  men  are  brethren.  The  Brahmos  consider  it  distinct  from  all  other 
religions  and  yet  the  essence  of  all.  It  is  not  hostile  to  other  creeds ; 
it  accepts  whatever  truth  they  contain,  and  rejects  only  their  errors. 
Being  based  upon  the  nature  of  man  it  is  therefore  permanent  and 
universal.  It  is  confined  to  no  special  epoch  or  race ;  so  that  men  of 
every  age  and  land  who  profess  this  natural  form  of  religion  are 
Brahmos. 

As  to  the  soul — and  it  is  here  above  all  that  Brahmoism  becomes 
radically  separated  from  Pantheistic  doctrines — God  created  it,  as  all 
other  material  or  immaterial  things,  but  though  it  has  thus  had  a 
beginning  it  will  have  no  end.  God  alone  is  eternal ;  the  soul  is  only 
immortal.  On  the  dissolution  of  the  organism  which  it  animates,  it 
will  quit  the  terrestrial  regions,  with  its  virtues  and  its  vices,  in  order 
to  indefinitely  carry  forward  in  other  spheres  the  struggle  for  truth  and 
perfection.  It  is  in  this  sense  we  are  to  understand  the  teaching  of 
the  Brahma  Dharma,  that  "  the  Paradise  of  the  Brahmo  consists  in 
the  society  of  God." 

With  a  conception  thus  elevated  of  our  relation  to  God,  the  "  pro- 
cess of  salvation,"  is  necessarily  the  pursuit  of  the  ideal  by  the  search 
for  the  true  and  the  practice  of  the  good.  Still  Brahmoism  would 
not  be  a  religion,  if  it  did  not  inculcate  the  necessity  of  some  form 
of  worship,  with  a  view  to  bringing  its  adherents  into  communion 
with  the  Absolute — a  form  of  worship  which  it  makes  to  consist 
entirely  of  love,  adoration  and  prayer,  and  not  of  ceremonial  ob- 
servances.    It  is  above  all  to  individual  and  spontaneous  prayer  that 


IN    ITS   STRUGGLE   WITH   HINDU   MYSTICISM.  259 

it  assigns  an  important  place  in  its  liturgy,  not  with  a  view  to  obtain 
a  miraculous  modification  of  the  laws  of  nature  or  even  to  render 
unnecessary  the  expiation  of  sins  actually  committed,  but  in  order  to 
procure  for  the  sinner,  thus  purified  by  repentance,  the  moral  strength 
needed  to  avoid  falling  back  into  his  former  evil  ways. 

To  this  scheme  of  theology,  which  is  as  simple  as  it  is  natural, 
Keshub  attached  theories  that  appear  to  be  an  unconscious  re-action 
of  Hindu  mysticism  against  the  rigidity  of  the  Rationalistic  tendencies 
developed  in  Brahmoism  by  its  contact  with  European  philosophy. 
As  early  as  1866,  in  a  sermon  on  "Great  Men,"  which  excited  no 
little  attention  in  Calcutta,  he  sought  to  prove  that,  over  and  above 
conscience  and  external  nature,  there  is  a  third  channel  through  which 
God  reveals  Himself  to  the  human  mind :  it  is  the  influence  of  men 
providentially  raised  up,  who  thus  specially  represent  "God  in  History." 
The  benefactors  and  reformers  of  the  human  race  may  therefore  be 
regarded,  he  urged,  as  incarnations  of  the  Divine,  not  in  the  common 
acceptation  of  the  term,  which  lends  a  human  form  to  the  Infinite 
Being,  but  in  this  sense  :  that  God,  who  is  present  in  all  men,  reveals 
Himself  more  fully  in  certain  superior  natures.  Let  the  East  and  the 
West  appreciate  and  honour  each  other's  great  teachers,  he  said,  and 
"  thus  hostile  Churches  and  the  dismembered  races  of  mankind  shall 
be  knit  together  into  one  family  in  the  bonds  of  faith  in  the  common 
Father  and  universal  gratitude  and  esteem  towards  their  elder  brothers, 
the  prophets."  This  was  a  very  elevated  conclusion,  but  from  the 
development  which  he  gave  to  his  definition  of  providential  men, 
Keshub  made  of  them  a  special  class,  intermediate  agents  between  the 
masses  and  God,  who  were  supposed  to  be  superior  to  the  apparent 
laws  of  the  moral  universe  and  infallible  in  their  opinions  when  under 
the  influence  of  divine  inspiration. 

But  by  what  signs  are  the  chosen  of  Providence  to  be  recognized  ? 
Keshub  gives  us  no  clue  whatever  to  this ;  he  merely  explains  that 
the  prophetic  office  may  become  the  mission  of  any  one  who,  through 
fervency  and  continuance  in  prayer,  knows  how,  in  a  sense,  to  lay 
hold  of  the  Divine.  In  a  discourse  on  "  Inspiration,"  preached  in 
1873,  for  instance,  on  the  occasion  of  the  43rd  anniversary  of  the 
Brahmo  Somaj,  he  said  : — 

"  Prayer  and  inspiration  are  two  sides  of  the  same  fact  of  spiritual 
life.     Man  asks  and  God  gives.     The  spirit  of  man  kneels  and  is 


260  THE   ECLECTICISM   OF  THE   BRAHMA   DHARMA 

quickened  by  the  spirit  of  God.  The  cause  and  the  effect  seem 
hardly  distinguishable,  and  in  the  reciprocal  action  of  the  human  and 
the  Divine  spirits  there  is  a  mysterious  unity.  Hardly  has  man  opened 
his  heart  in  prayer  when  the  tide  of  inspiration  sets  in.  The  moment 
you  put  your  finger  in  contact  with  fire,  you  instantly  feel  a  burning 
sensation.  So  with  prayer  and  the  consequent  inspiration.  The  effect 
is  immediate,  necessary,  inevitable.  .  .  .  Observe  the  process  : 
God  acts  upon  the  soul  and  the  soul  re-acts  upon  God,  and  there  is 
re-action  again  and  again.  That  response  stirs  the  deepest  depths  of 
the  heart,  and  we  pour  forth  our  feelings  and  sentiments  of  love  and 
gratitude,  and  consecrate  our  energies  unto  God.  These  are  again 
sent  down  with  greater  blessings  and  increased  power,  so  that  the 
heart  is  more  than  ever  quickened  and  sanctified.  Thus  we  gradually 
ascend  from  the  lowest  point  of  communion  to  its  higher  stages,  till 
we  gradually  attain  that  state  of  inspiration  in  which  the  human  will 
is  wholly  lost  in  the  divine.  Blessed  he  who  has  realized  this  but 
once  in  his  life-time.  .  .  .  Nay,  the  inspired  soul  goes  further. 
It  does  not  rest  satisfied  with  having  cast  off  the  old  and  put  on  the 
new  man ;  it  aspires  to  put  on  divinity.  With  the  profoundest  rever- 
ence, be  it  said,  that  it  is  possible  for  man,  when  inspired,  to  put  on 
God.  For  then  self  is  completely  lost  in  conscious  godliness,  and 
you  feel  that  you  can  do  nothing  of  yourself,  and  that  all  your  holy 
thoughts,  words  and  actions,  are  only  the  breathings  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  So  the  great  prophets  of  earlier  times  thought  and  felt.  They 
felt  strong  in  God's  strength  and  pure  in  God's  purity,  and  to  Him 
they  ascribed  all  honour  and  glory."1 

It  is  easy  to  see  in  the  author  of  this  language,  so  interspersed 
with  ecstatic  pictures  and  ardent  invocations  recalling  the  visions  of 
God  among  the  mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a  descendent  of  that 
contemplative  and  exalted  race  which  deified  prayer  under  the  name 
of  Brahma  and  subjected  the  will  of  the  gods  to  the  incantations  of 
men.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  Keshub  avoids  falling  into  Pantheism, 
which  he  condemns  for  having  "  dishonoured  God  and  ruined  man," 
by  sapping  the  foundations  of  morality  and  true  religion  in  Hindu 
society :  "In  Pantheism  man  with  all  his  impurity  fancies  he  is  God. 

I.  Inspiration,  a  Lecture  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  Forty-third  Anniver- 
sary of  the  Brahmo  Somdj,  Calcutta,  1873.  The  principal  sermons  and  discourses 
of  Keshub  have  been  collected  into  a  volume,  which  was  published  in  English,  at 
Calcutta,  in  1882. 


IN    ITS    STRUGGLE   WITH    HINDU   MYSTICISM.  261 

In  Theism  man  is  purified  and  so  attuned  to  the  divine  will  as  to 
become  one  with  it.  The  Theist's  heaven  is  not  absorption  into  the 
divine  essence,  but  the  Nirwana  of  Ahankar  or  the  annihilation  of 
egotism.  In  the  highest  state  of  inspiration,  man's  only  creed  is: 
'Lord  thy  will  be  done !'"  Still,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  by  thus 
making  union  with  God,  through  renunciation  and  ecstacy,  man's 
supreme  aim,  Keshub  furnished  a  dangerous  element  to  the  spirit  of 
asceticism  and  contemplation,  which  is  so  powerful  among  his  fellow 
countrymen,  while  at  the  same  time,  by  his  theory  of  Ades/i,  that  is  to 
say  direct  and  special  inspiration,  he  placed  the  vargaries  of  the  in- 
dividual mind  above  the  general  laws  of  reason  and  morality. 

The  appeal  to  the  sentiments  of  bhakti  had  unquestionably  con- 
tributed to  the  rapid  progress  of  the  Bharatbharsia  by  means  of  the 
fervour  and  persistence  with  which  it  fired  the  adherents  of  Keshub  after 
their  secession  from  the  Adi  Somaj.  Miss  Collet  even  supposes  that 
it  was  these  sentiments  which  saved  Brahmoism  from  final  dissolu- 
tion.1 But  confined,  like  every  movement  of  the  sort,  within  the 
domain  of  sentiment  and  imagination,  it  was  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  over-shooting  the  mark  and  of  encroaching  upon  other  spheres  of 
activity.  In  1874,  Keshub  called  forth  the  enthusiasm  of  his  friends 
to  such  an  extent  that  they  remained  six  hours  "  in  continual  com- 
munion with  God,"  and  were  sometimes  led  to  withdraw  into  solitude, 
in  order  to  chant  the  divine  name  there,  with  passionate  fervour.2 
At  the  same  period  he  organized  a  pilgrimage  into  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  with  a  small  company  of  devotees.  They  all  took  up 
their  abode  at  a  romantic  spot  commanding  a  vast  panorama  of  snowy 
peaks,  and  went  out  every  morning,  each  in  a  different  direction,  to 
give  themselves  up  to  prayer  and  meditation  in  solitude ;  then  they 
met  to  pray  and  sing  in  common,  sometimes  in  a  glade  or  on  the 
slope  of  a  valley,  sometimes  by  the  side  of  a  stream  or  a  waterfall.3 

1.  Bramho  Year  Book  lot  1877.  One  of  the  first  things  Keshub  took  care  to 
do,  when  he  organized  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj,  was  to  establish,  in  addition  to  a 
theological  school,  a  Sangat  sabha  (an  association  for  religious  conversation),  a 
Society  of  Theistic  Friends,  missionary  conferences  and  other  institutions  for  the 
cultivation  and  elevation  of  the  religious  sentiment  in  its  various  forms. 

2.  See  his  essays  in  the  early  numbers  of  the  Indian  Mirror.  A  part  of  these 
articles  were  republished  in  1874,  in  a  small  volume  entitled  :  Essays,  Theological 
and  Ethical,  from  the  Indian  Mirror,  in  which  are  to  be  found  all  the  tendencies 
which  subsequently  developed  themselves  in  the  New  Dispensation. 

3.  Essays :  Theological  and  Ethical,  p.  147. 


262  THE   ECLECTICISM    OF   THE    BRAHMA   DHARMA 

Charged,  and  not  unjustly,  with  fostering  the  development  of 
asceticism,  Keshub  defended  himself  as  follows,  in  a  letter  to  Miss 
Collet,  dated  the  ioth  of  December,  1875  :  "The  amount  of  ascetic 
self-mortification  actually  existing  among  us,  has  been  greatly  ex- 
aggerated. If  you  come  and  see  us  as  we  are,  you  will  be  surprised 
to  find  how  little  we  possess  of  that  sort  of  asceticism,  which  has 
caused  so  much  anxiety  and  fear  in  the  hearts  of  English  friends.  If 
we  were  like  the  Roman  Catholics  or  Indian  Hermits,  the  sharp 
criticism  called  forth  would  have  been  deserved.  But  my  asceticism 
is  not  what  is  generally  accepted  as  such.  .  .  .  Energy,  philan- 
thropy, meditation,  work,  self-sacrifice,  intellectual  culture,  domestic 
and  social  love,  all  these  are  united  in  my  asceticism.  Why,  then, 
you  may  ask,  this  special  outburst  of  ascetic  zeal  at  this  time  ?  It  is 
needed.  That  is  my  explanation.  Providence  has  pointed  out  this 
remedy  for  many  of  the  besetting  evils  of  the  Somaj  in  these  days. 
A  like  asceticism  is  needed  as  an  antedote.  .  .  .  Do  regard  it 
then  as  a  remedy  for  the  time  most  urgently  needed."1 

Meanwhile,  at  the  commencement  of  1876,  the  movement  assumed 
a  still  more  pronounced  character,  under  the  form  of  bairagya  (renun- 
ciation), with  a  view,  as  it  was  said,  to  facilitate  the  removal  of  those 
obstacles  which  the  carnal  passions  offer  to  moral  and  religious  pro- 
gress. Its  members  were  divided  into  four  sections  or  orders  :  yoga 
(communion  with  God) ;  bhakti  (love  of  God) ;  gyan  (researches  for 
God) ;  shaba  (service  of  humanity).2    Each  of  these  four  classes  com- 

1.  Brahvio  Year  Book  for  1877,  page  22. 

2.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  what  was  taught  in  the  yoga  section  ;  it  will  be  clear 
from  this  that  what  Keshub  understood  by  asceticism  is  rather  pure  mysticism. 
"  O  you  learner  of  yoga,  know  that  true  communion  is  not  possible  unless  thou  dost 
draw  within  thyself  wholly.  All  thy  senses,  nay  thy  whole  being  must  be  absorbed 
in  the  profound  contemplation  of  the  object  of  thy  yoga.  Yet  thou  shalt  not  always 
tarry  within  thyself.  There  must  be  the  reverse  process  of  coming  from  within  to 
the  world  outside.  .  .  .  True  yoga  is  therefore  like  a  circle.  It  is  a  wheel 
continually  revolving  from  the  inner  to  the  outer.  From  the  outer  it  goes  to  the 
inner  again.  As  the  yoga  advances,  the  gyrations  become  more  rapid  and  frequent, 
till  the  distance  and  difference  between  the  inner  and  the  outer  become  continually 
less.  Forms  grow  formless,  and  formlessness  shapes  itself  into  forms.  In  matter 
the  spirit  is  beheld  ;  in  spirit  matter  is  transformed.  In  the  glorious  sun,  the  glory 
of  glories  is  beheld.  In  the  serene  moon,  the  serenity  of  all  serenities  fills  the  soul. 
In  the  loud  thunder,  the  might  of  the  Lord  is  heard  from  afar.  All  things  are  full 
of  Him.  The  yoga  opens  his  eye,  lo  !  He  is  without.  The  yoga  closes  his  eye,  lo  ! 
He  is  within.  Thy  yoga,  O  disciple,  will  then  become  complete.  Do  thou  always 
strive  after  that  completeness." — Yoga  Teachings.   {Brahvio  Year  Book  for  1S77.) 


IN    ITS    STRUGGLE   WITH    HINDU    MYSTICISM.  263 

prised  two  grades  of  membership :  the  initiated  or  novice  (sad/iac), 
and  the  advanced  or  superior  (sibha)  ;  this  last  position  gave  to  those 
possessing  it  a  special  authority  over  their  co-religionists  :  "  There  will 
henceforth  be  a  difference  between  you  and  those  who  surround  you," 
said  Keshub  to  the  superior  order.  "  The  divine  light  will  come  by 
your  intervention,  and  they  will  have  to  receive  it  from  you."  This 
is  an  illustration  of  how,  in  forms  of  faith  originally  the  least  dogmatic 
and  ritualistic,  there  arises  that  distinction  between  clergy  and  laity, 
which  ultimately  engenders  sacerdotal  theocracies,  if  nothing  occurs 
to  arrest  its  complete  development. 

A  proof  of  the  danger  which  now  threatened  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of 
India,  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  first  two  orders  in  which  the 
contemplative  prevailed,  immediately  absorbed  all  the  activity  of  the 
congregation,  to  the  detriment  of  philosophical  or  literary  studies  and 
of  the  institutions  designed  to  promote  social  reform.  In  1876,  for 
instance,  Keshub  breaks  off  his  jubilee  lectures  and  passes  the  greater 
part  of  his  time  in  a  garden  in  the  environs  of  Calcutta,  giving  himself 
up  to  contemplation  and  prayer  with  his  principal  disciples,  all  of 
them  being  seated  for  hours  together  in  the  shade  of  trees  on  mats  or 
tigers'  skins.  In  a  number  of  the  Theistic  Quarterly,  in  1877,  Protab 
Chunder  Mozoumdar — who  shared,  it  may  be  remarked,  the  tendencies 
of  Keshub — complains  of  the  neglect  in  which  his  coadjutors  were 
beginning  to  leave  the  useful  elements  of  life,  thought  and  sentiment, 
introduced  by  Western  influence.  In  his  report  of  the  following  year, 
he  mentions  with  regret  that  the  schools  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj 
were  in  a  state  of  decay.  In  1877,  the  Brahmo  Niketan1  had  to  be 
closed,  and  some  months  later  the  normal  school  for  girls  which 
Keshub  had  founded  saw  itself  deprived  of  the  Government  grant  on 
the  ground  of  its  inefficiency. 

There  were  certainly  some  few  sober  spirits  in  the  congregation  at 
Calcutta,  who  raised  a  protest  against  this  sad  tendency ;  but  all  they 
gained  by  their  opposition  was  a  charge  of  lukewarmness  and  jealousy. 
Several  years  earlier,  indeed,  the  enemies  of  Keshub  taking  note  of 
his  doctrine  of  great  men,  and  also  of  the  display  of  veneration  which 
in  Eastern  fashion  he  received  from  a  part  of  his  followers,  had  accused 
him  of  wishing  to  resuscitate  the  theory  of  Avatars  to  his  own  advan- 

I.  A  sort  of  model  boarding  house,  organized  by  Keshub,  in  1873,  f°r  tne  use 
of  Brahmoistic  students. 


264  THE   ECLECTICISM    OF   THE    BRAHMA   DHARMA 

tage.  But  the  very  exaggeration  of  this  reproach  had  contributed  to 
strengthen  his  influence  in  Calcutta,  as  well  as  in  the  provinces,  and 
he  seemed  to  personify  Brahmoism  more  than  ever,  when,  at  the  end 
of  1877,  the  news  that  he  was  going  to  marry  his  daughter  to  the 
Maharajah  of  Couch-Behar  fell  like  a  thunder-clap  upon  the  Brahmo 
Somaj. 

Couch-Behar  is  a  tributary  state  of  the  Anglo-Indian  Empire,  situated 
in  the  north  of  Bengal,  at  the  foot  of  the  Himalaya,  with  an  area  of 
1292  square  miles,  and  a  population  of  532,000  souls.  Its  ruler,  who 
was  still  a  minor,  had  received  a  liberal  education,  which  had  more 
or  less  freed  him  from  the  prejudices  of  religion  and  of  caste.  It  was 
hoped,  therefore,  that  this  union,  while  it  increased  the  moral  power  of 
Keshub,  would  at  length  gain  over  the  young  Prince  to  the  doctrines 
of  Brahmoism,  if  indeed  it  did  not  lead  some  day  to  his  playing  the 
part  of  a  second  Constantine  in  his  dominions. 

Still  the  news  of  this  marriage  was  far  from  meeting  with  a  favour- 
able reception  from  all  sections  of  the  Brahmos.  The  Rajah  was  but 
fifteen  years  old  and  his  bride  only  thirteen,  that  is  to  say  neither 
of  them  had  reached  the  age  required  by  the  "Native  Marriage 
Act,"  and  it  was  urged  that  Keshub  had  been  one  of  the  first  to  de- 
mand that  Act  with  a  view  to  prevent  premature  marriages.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  law  was  applicable  neither  to  Couch-Behar  nor  to 
the  person  of  its  sovereign.  Still,  was  this  any  reason  for  not  respect- 
ing a  legal  arrangement,  whose  introduction  into  Anglo-Indian  rule 
had  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  social  achievements 
of  Brahmoism  ?  Then  again,  if  the  marriage  was  not  to  be  celebrated 
according  to  the  requirements  of  the  "  Native  Marriage  Act,"  there 
remained  but  the  use  of  the  Hindu  ritual,  more  or  less  freed  from 
its  Polytheistic  formulas,  or  of  that  employed  in  the  Adi  Somaj,  and 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  latter  ritual,  besides  containing 
several  ceremonies  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  neo-Brahmoism,  left  the 
door  open  to  polygamy  and  other  abuses.  If  the  young  Rajah  was 
a  genuine  Brahmo  why  did  he  not  make  the  "  Native  Marriage  Act" 
binding  in  his  dominions,  and  why  did  he  not  wait  a  year  longer  in 
order  to  marry  according  to  the  principles  of  his  co-religionists,  after 
attaining  the  matrimonial  majority  prescribed  by  the  new  law  ? 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  who  had  entered  into  communication  with 
the  Deputy-Commissioner  of  Couch-Behar,  an  English  functionary, 


IN   ITS   STRUGGLE  WITH   HINDU   MYSTICISM.  265 

acting  as  guardian  to  the  young  prince,  at  first  made  his  consent  de- 
pendent upon  the  following  conditions  : — (i)  That  the  Maharajah 
should  adhere  explicitly  to  Brahmoism ;  (2)  That  the  marriage  should 
be  celebrated  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj,  with 
the  simple  addition  of  such  local  and  traditional  ceremonies  as  might 
be  deemed  necessary,  provided  that  they  did  not  imply  any  idolatrous 
practice ;  (3)  that  the  solemnization  of  the  marriage  should  be  de- 
ferred till  the  bride  and  bridegroom  had  attained  their  matrimonial 
majority.  On  the  first  two  points  he  obtained  all  the  assurances  he 
desired;  but  with  regard  to  the  third,  he  was  told  by  the  Anglo- 
Indian  Government  that  as  the  Rajah  had  formed  the  project  of  an 
approaching  journey  to  England,  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  he 
should  be  married  before  carrying  out  this  intention.  At  last,  there- 
fore, he  yielded  and,  on  the  9th  of  February,  1878,  the  Indian  Mirror 
of  Calcutta  contained  an  official  announcement  that  the  marriage 
would  be  celebrated  at  Couch-Behar  in  the  early  days  of  March. 

Protestations  immediately  began  to  shower  down  upon  Keshub. 
In  the  course  of  eight  days,  he  received  no  less  than  forty-four ;  one 
was  signed  by  twenty-three  of  his  principal  followers  in  the  capital, 
another  by  the  students  of  Calcutta,  and  a  third  by  Brahmoist  ladies, 
while  at  least  thirty  came  from  various  provincial  congregations. 
Meanwhile  a  committee  was  formed  in  the  Calcutta  congregation  to 
watch  over  the  interests  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  during  the  crisis. 
This  committee  at  once  called  several  meetings  at  the  Town  Hall, 
one  of  which,  composed  of  at  least  3000  persons,  according  to  the 
Indian  Daily  News,  formally  condemned  the  marriage  project,  add- 
ing, by  means  of  a  resolution,  carried  by  a  large  majority :  "  That  the 
Secretary  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India  by  countenancing  this 
marriage,  and  by  the  utter  disregard  he  has  shown  of  the  strong  ex- 
pression of  Brahmo  public  opinion  on  the  subject,  has  forfeited  his 
claims  to  the  confidence  of  the  Brahmo  community."  The  day  before 
this  meeting,  Keshub  had  set  out  for  Couch-Behar  with  his  daughter 
and  a  large  party  of  friends. 

His  position  was  even  more  delicate  and  difficult  than  it  was  thought 
to  be  at  Calcutta.  There  existed  at  the  Court  of  Couch-Behar,  as 
indeed  in  the  majority  of  the  native  Principalities,  two  parties  :  a  party 
of  reform,  more  or  less  directly  encouraged  by  the  English  Government 
which  was  carrying  on  the  administration  during  the  minority  of  the 


266  THE   ECLECTICISM   OF   THE   BRAHMA   DHARMA 

sovereign,  and  the  orthodox  party,  openly  supported  by  the  Princesses 
of  the  Royal  House,  the  Ranies.  When  the  preliminary  festivities  had 
already  lasted  five  days,  the  mother  and  grandmother  of  the  young 
prince  declared,  at  the  instigation  of  their  pandits,  that  Keshub  having 
lost  his  caste,  could  not  be  present  within  the  sacred  enclosure  at  the 
nuptual  ceremony;  that  only  Brahmans  wearing  the  symbolic  cord 
would  be  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  service ;  that  all  the  expressions 
introduced  into  the  Marriage  Service  by  the  Brahmos,  including  the 
passage  relative  to  the  consent  of  the  bride,  would  be  cut  out ;  and 
finally  that  the  married  couple  would  have  to  celebrate  the  Horn  or 
Homa,  the  sacrifice  of  fire.  These  claims  were  communicated  to 
Keshub  during  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  March. 

All  the  following  day  was  spent  in  vainly  attempting  to  bring 
about  a  compromise.  In  order  not  to  interrupt  the  regular  course 
of  the  arrangements,  Keshub  had  already  given  over  his  daughter 
to  the  attendants  whose  duty  it  was  to  convey  her  to  the  Ranies; 
when  driven,  however,  to  extremities  by  the  demands  of  the  pandits, 
he  declared  he  would  rather  break  off  the  marriage  than  yield  to 
such  conditions,  whatever  scandal  might  be  the  result.  But  they 
told  him  this  was  too  late,  and  that  his  daughter  would  not  be  given 
back  to  him,  unless  he  consented  to  pay  the  expenses  of  all  the 
preliminary  festivities — a  lac-and-a-half  of  rupees,  or  fifteen  thousand 
pounds  sterling.  For  a  short  time  he  adhered  to  his  refusal,  but  his 
friends  calmed  him,  and,  thanks  to  the  intervention  of  the  Deputy- 
Commissioner,  an  arrangement  was  concluded  on  the  following  basis : 
The  bride  was  to  be  led  to  the  altar  by  her  uncle,  Krishna  Bihari  Sen, 
a  Brahmo  who  had  not  lost  his  caste ;  the  ceremony  originally  agreed 
upon  in  the  stipulations  for  the  marriage  was  to  be  followed;  the 
young  wife  was  then  to  retire,  and  the  Homa  to  be  celebrated  in  the 
presence  of  the  young  Rajah  alone. 

It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  this  compromise  was 
settled  and  the  negotiations  had  lasted  from  day-break  the  previous 
morning.  Both  parties  betook  themselves  at  once  to  the  court  of 
honour,  which  had  been  prepared  for  the  ceremony.  The  Brahmos, 
however,  who  had  been  solemnly  promised  that  no  idolatrous  symbol 
should  be  introduced,  were  disagreeably  surprised  to  find  there  certain 
objects  of  an  equivocal  form,  such  as  jars  of  water  half  covered  over 
with  banana  leaves,  and  above  all,  two  kinds  of  pillars  about  a  yard- 


IN    ITS    STRUGGLE   WITH    HINDU    MYSTICISM.  267 

and-a-half  high,  enveloped  in  red  cloth  covers.  These  were  probably 
images  of  Hari  and  of  Gouri,  the  patron  or  tutelary  divinities  of  Hindu 
marriages,  whom  there  had  been  found  means  of  inviting  incognito 
to  the  wedding.  Meanwhile  the  Deputy-Commissioner  calmed  the 
suspicions  of  the  Brahmos,  as  well  as  he  could,  and  the  ceremony 
proceeded  without  a  hitch  till  the  moment  when  the  friends  of  Keshub 
began  to  recite  the  prayers  of  their  liturgy.  Then  there  arose  a 
clamour  which  drowned  their  voices,  and  it  was  in  the  private  apart- 
ments of  the  Prince  that  the  exchange  of  vows  had  to  be  made,  a 
feature  of  the  ceremony  specially  disagreeable  to  the  Hindus  of  the 
old  traditional  school. 

A  week  later  the  young  Maharajah  set  out  for  Calcutta,  in  order  to 
embark  there  for  Europe.  This  journey,  which  was  about  to  com- 
promise his  caste  privileges,  caused  the  orthodox  of  Couch-Behar  a 
feeling  of  perhaps  even  greater  pain  than  his  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  a  Brahmo.  A  despatch  published  by  the  Indian  Mirror 
of  the  13th  of  March,  states  that  on  the  announcement  of  his  depar- 
ture, the  Ranies,  maddened  with  grief,  struck  their  heads  against  the 
walls  till  they  bled  profusely,  and  that  the  prince  had  to  take  refuge 
against  their  lamentations  in  the  residence  of  the  Deputy-Com- 
missioner, without  even  venturing  to  bid  them  good-bye. 

Here  is  a  passage  from  a  petition  which  these  princesses  addressed 
at  that  time  to  the  Commissioner  of  Couch-Behar  :  "  We  are  helpless, 
weak  women,  you  are  wise  and  powerful.  The  honour  and  prestige 
of  our  family  is  entrusted  to  your  hands.  We,  therefore,  repeatedly 
pray  that  you  will  not,  during  the  minority  of  the  Maharaja,  and 
in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  all,  send  him  to  England.  The 
Maharaja's  servants  have  all  fled ;  his  Brahmin  (cook)  refuses  to  go 
and  we  cannot  get  another  (to  serve  him).  If  you  are  not  averse  to 
a  matter  so  destructive  to  our  caste  and  religion,  then  we  request  that 
you  will  at  once  send  this  petition  to  His  Honour,  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor.  When  our  caste  and  religion  are  about  to  go  and  this  life 
and  future  life  are  both  in  peril,  we  are  prepared  to  send  this  petition 
of  powerless  and  unsupported  women  to  the  bright  throne  of  Srimati, 
the  Empress  of  India."  It  should  be  added  that  the  other  relatives 
of  the  Rajah  had  even  declined  to  be  present  at  his  marriage.1 


I.  Brahmo  Yea?'  Book  for  1878,  pages  9 — 68. 


268  THE   ECLECTICISM   OF   THE   BRAHMA   DHARMA 

All  these  incidents,  however  trivial  and  futile  they  may  appear  to 
us  at  a  distance,  will  not  astonish  those  who  reflect  upon  the  pro- 
foundly conventional  nature  of  ancient  Hindu  society,  and  the  dissolv- 
ing influence  exerted  upon  it  by  its  sudden  contract  with  European 
civilization.  When  we  bear  in  mind,  indeed,  the  obstacles,  if  not  the 
ill-feeling,  which  mixed  unions  encounter,  even  in  countries  where 
civil  marriage  is  a  legal  institution,  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  the 
importance  attached  to  the  least  formality  calculated  to  determine 
whether  this  princely  union  should  be  regarded  as  a  Hindu  or  a 
Brahmoist  marriage.  Nor  will  anyone  be  astonished  to  learn  that  the 
Orthodox  and  the  Reformers  were  alike  disappointed  by  the  result. 
The  adherents  of  Hinduism  complained  that  certain  essential  formulas 
of  their  liturgy  had  been  omitted  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  a  heretical 
creed ;  on  the  other  hand  the  Brahmos  were  aggrieved  that  a  premature 
marriage  had  been  sanctioned,  a  compromise  made  with  the  spirit  of 
caste,  and  idolatrous  rites  permitted  at  the  ceremony. 

Now  in  my  opinion  the  conduct  of  Keshub  should  not  be  judged 
too  severely  in  this  matter ;  for  he  struggled  as  best  he  could,  though 
unsuccessfully,  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  his  Brahmoist  principles. 
He  even  succeeded  in  his  desire  that  the  marriage  should  not  be  con- 
summated before  the  return  of  the  Maharajah  from  his  trip  to  England, 
and  when  this  took  place  the  young  couple  were  re-united  at  Calcutta 
according  to  the  ritual  of  the  Brahmos.1  Still  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
Keshub  failed  in  loyalty  to  his  own  principles,  and  in  cases  where 
a  simple  follower  might  be  excused  for  yielding  to  the  pressure  of 
circumstances,  a  leader  is  expected  to  adopt  a  more  uncompromising 
position.  He  who  would  exercise  a  religious  or  political  ascendency 
over  his  fellows  must  make  it  his  first  care  to  shape  his  private  life  to 
his  public  career,  his  acts  to  his  teachings. 

By  violating  in  his  own  family  the  rules  he  had  laid  down  for  the 
use  of  others,  the  reformer  who  had  separated  himself  from  the  Adi 
Somaj  with  so  much  eclat,  because  it  was  not  sufficiently  free  from 
Hindu  prejudices  and  traditions,  had  committed  one  of  those  incon- 

I.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1881,  page  76.  The  London  Truth,  of  Dec.  22nd, 
1883,  states  that  "the  young  Rajah  who  has  just  attained  his  majority,  is  one  of 
the  most  popular  men  in  Calcutta,  and  his  bright  intelligent  face  is  to  be  seen  at 
social  gatherings  of  every  description.  The  Maharani  is  a  charming  little  woman, 
who  knows  how  to  receive  her  guests  with  a  grace  and  an  ease  of  manners  that 
might  be  envied  by  many  an  Eastern  hostess." 


IN   ITS   STRUGGLE  WITH   HINDU   MYSTICISM.  269 

sistent  acts  which  even  necessity  does  not  suffice  to  justify ;  and  the 
matter  was  made  worse  when,  to  defend  himself  from  the  attacks  with 
which  he  was  assailed,  he  entrenched  himself  behind  the  famous  doc- 
trine of  Adesh,  affirming  that  he  had  followed  the  direct  inspiration  of 
God.  Strange  as  this  defence  was,  no  one,  even  among  his  adver^ 
saries,  called  in  question  his  sincerity,  which  is  certainly  one  of  the 
highest  tributes  of  respect  that  could  have  been  paid  to  his  character. 
But  his  very  sincerity  merely  served  to  give  prominence  to  the  dangers 
of  such  a  system  and  to  show  the  necessity  for  its  open  repudiation. 

Of  the  fifty-seven  Somajes  which  expressed  an  opinion  on  this 
subject,  fifty  censured  Keshub's  conduct  and  twenty-six  of  them 
demanded  his  immediate  deposition  from  office.  Finally,  on  the  21st 
of  March,  1878,  at  the  close  of  a  meeting  which  Keshub  had  himself 
called,  the  Brahmos  of  Calcutta  passed  a  resolution  declaring  "That 
in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  he  cannot  continue  in  the  office  of  the 
minister."  But  he  contested  the  validity  of  this  decision  under  the 
pretext  of  irregularity  in  the  voting,  and  when  on  the  following 
Sunday  his  opponents  sought  to  take  possession  of  the  Mandir  or 
Church,  he  succeeded  in  repulsing  them  by  calling  in  the  aid  of  the 
police. 

The  dissentients  consequently  resolved  to  secede  from  the  Bharat- 
bharsia  Somaj,  and  to  form  a  new  organization,  the  Sadharan  Somaj 
or  Universal  Church.  On  the  15th  of  May  the  basis  of  the  move- 
ment was  agreed  upon  in  the  following  terms,  by  a  meeting  of  more 
than  four  hundred  Brahmos  : — "  We  believe  that  faith  in  a  Supreme 
Being,  and  in  existence  after  death,  is  natural  to  man ;  we  regard  the 
relation  between  God  and  man  to  be  direct  and  immediate ;  we  do 
not  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  any  man  or  of  any  scripture ;  what- 
ever books  contain  truths  calculated  to  enoble  the  soul  or  elevate  the 
character,  is  a  Brahmo  scripture ;  and  whoever  teaches  such  truths  is 
his  teacher  and  his  guide.  We  regard  the  fourfold  culture  of  man's 
intellect,  conscience,  affections  and  devotion  as  equally  important  and 
equally  necessary  for  his  salvation.  .  .  .  We  look  upon  the  enjoy- 
ment of  uncontrolled  authority  by  a  single  individual  in  any  religious 
community  as  a  calamity,  and  far  from  looking  upon  freedom  of 
thought  as  reprehensible,  we  consider  it  as  a  safeguard  against  corrup- 
tion and  degeneracy.  We  regard  the  belief  in  an  individual  being  a 
way  to  salvation,  or  a  link  between  God  and  man,  as  a  belief  un- 


270  THE   ECLECTICISM   OF   THE   BRAHMA   DHARMA 

worthy  of  a  Theist  and  those  who  hold  such  a  belief,  as  unworthy  of 
the  Brahmo  name.  We  consider  it  to  be  blasphemy  and  an  insult  to 
the  Majesty  of  heaven  to  claim  divine  inspiration  for  any  act  opposed 
to  the  dictates  of  reason,  truth  and  morality." 

By  the  end  of  September  the  work  of  the  Provisional  Committee 
was  finished,  and  the  Sadharan  Somaj  assumed  a  definitive  constitu- 
tion, with  the  double  character  of  being  a  Brahmo  congregation  in 
Calcutta  and  of  forming  a  centre  for  affiliated  provincial  congrega- 
tions. Besides,  the  entire  organization  was  formed  on  the  model  of 
the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj,  except  that  it  entrusted  the  ultimate  direc- 
tion of  its  affairs  to  a  committee  of  forty  members,  chosen  directly 
by  the  General  Assembly,  with  an  additional  delegate  from  each  of 
the  affiliated  Somajes. 

The  second  article  of  its  constitution  defined  as  follows  the  principles 
to  which  its  members  were  called  upon  to  subscribe  :  (i)  The  existence 
of  an  infinite  Creator ;  (2)  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  (3)  the  duty 
and  the  necessity  of  rendering  a  spiritual  worship  to  God;  (4)  the 
rejection  of  the  belief  that  salvation  is  to  be  obtained  by  the  interven- 
tion of  a  book  or  the  aid  of  infallible  men.1 

On  the  22nd  of  January,  1881,  the  members  of  the  Sadharan 
Somaj  solemnly  inaugurated  their  worship  at  the  vast  mandir  they 
had  built  for  themselves,  in  Cornwallis-street,  Calcutta.  The  congre- 
gation met  at  dawn,  in  their  temporary  place  of  worship,  where, 
after  prayers,  the  pandit  Sevanath  Sastri  reminded  them  how  they  must 
sing  the  name  of  God  in  the  streets,  without  making  a  parade  of  it. 
This  introductory  service  being  over,  the  congregation  betook  them- 
selves to  the  new  church,  in  procession,  singing  suitable  hymns  as 
they  went.  As  they  proceeded  their  numbers  increased  so  much  that, 
to  use  the  language  of  an  eye-witness,  the  procession  formed  "  a  sea 
of  uncovered  heads  surging  slowly  onwards."  From  1,200  to  1,500 
were  constantly  present  at  the  devotional  exercises  and  the  ceremonies 
of  inauguration,  which  extended  over  two  entire  days.2 

The  reader  will  be  able  to  judge  from  all  this  how  far  the  members 
of  the  Sadharan  Somaj  merit  the  appellation  of  Secular  Brahmos, 
which  Keshub's  friends  have  contemptuously  styled  them.     On  the 

1.  The  New  Dispensation  and  the  Sadharan  Brahmo  Somaj,  by  the  pandit 
Sevanath  Sastri.     Madras,  1881.    P.  90. 

2.  The  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1881. 


IN   ITS   STRUGGLE  WITH   HINDU   MYSTICISM.  271 

contrary,  indeed,  it  is  they  who  represent  the  genuine  idea  of  Brahmoism 
in  all  its  integrity.  It  is  but  just  to  add,  moreover,  that  they  have 
already  reproduced  or  developed  the  principal  agencies  of  reform 
which  had  grouped  themselves  around  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj. 
These  consist  of  schools  and  colleges  for  both  sexes,  libraries,  sanghat 
sabhds,  missions  and  lectures,  philanthropical  societies,  journals  in 
several  languages,  associations  of  women,  &c.  In  relation  to  the 
emancipation  of  women,  they  are  even  in  advance  of  the  Bharatbharsia 
Somaj,  which  while  demanding  for  young  girls  the  advantages  of  a 
complete  education,  does  not,  however,  go  so  far  as  to  grant  them  the 
freedom  of  action  which  characterizes  Western  civilization.1  Finally, 
they  completely  organized,  as  we  have  seen,  the  principle  of  self- 
government  in  the  affiairs  of  the  Church. 

I.  Savanath  Sastri.     Op.  Cit.     Page  74. 


CHAPTER      XIV, 


THE   SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW    DISPENSATION. 


Increasing  influence  of  Keshub  among  his  followers  after  the  secession  of  the 
dissentients — Am  I  an  inspired  prophet  ? — India  asks  :  Who  is  Christ  ? — The 
motherhood  of  God — Proclamation  of  the  New  Dispensation — Borrowings  from 
the  rites  and  symbols  of  Hinduism — Invocation  of  Hari — The  sacrifice  of  Homa — 
Mystic  dances — Keshub's  judgment  of  Hinduism — Extension  of  his  syncretism 
to  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  other  religions— The  Eucharist  and  Baptism  in 
the  New  Dispensation — Ecclesiastical  vows — Borrowings  from  the  Religion  of 
Humanity — Communion  of  saints  and  subjective  pilgrimages — The  theatre  of  the 
New  Dispensation — Keshub  as  a  juggler — Criticisms  urged  against  his  mixed 
system  of  rites — Max  Miiller's  Letter  to  the  Times — Keshub's  death  on  the  6th 
of  January,  1884 — Keshub's  religious  ideal  and  the  doctrine  of  Adesh — The 
true  scope  of  his  syncretism — Antecedents  and  future  of  his  attempt. 


Whilst  the  Sadharan  Somaj  was  thus  taking  in  hand  the  cause  of 
true  Brahmoism,  the  mother  Church  continued  to  develop  itself  in 
the  opposite  direction.  As  was  to  be  expected,  the  secession  of  those 
who  were  hostile  to  Keshub  resulted  in  an  increase  of  his  ascendancy 
over  the  minds  of  the  Brahmos  who  remained  faithful  to  him,  while 
it,  at  the  same  time,  permitted  him  to  follow  out  his  mystic  tendencies 
without  any  counteracting  influence.  During  the  whole  of  1879,  he 
never  ceased  to  urge,  both  in  his  sermons  and  in  his  principal  organ, 
the  Indian  Mirror,  that  he  had  been  favoured  with  special  divine  in- 
spiration. Taking  up  in  a  direct  way  the  thorny  question  :  Am  I  an 
inspired  prophet? — in  his  anniversary  address  on  the  22nd  of  January, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  range  himself  among  the  sinners  rather  than 
among  the  saints  of  the  world,  and  to  speak  of  himself  as  being  un- 
worthy to  touch  the  shoes  of  the  last  of  the  prophets ;  but  at  the 
same  time  he  described  himself  as  an  "  extraordinary  "  man,  invested 
with  a  divine  mission  and  favoured  by  mysterious  communications 
with  the  ancient  prophets,  and  even  with  God  himself.  "  The  Lord 
said  I  was  to  have  no  doctrine,  no  creed,"  he  added,  "but  a  perennial 
and  perpetual  inspiration  from  heaven.'' 

On  the  9th  of  April  he  gave  a  lecture  in  English  at  the  Calcutta 
Town  Hall,  under  the  title— India  asks:  Who  is  Christ?  This 
left  an  impression  upon  certain  of  his  audience  that  he  was  shortly 


274  THE   SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

about  to  become  a  convert  to  Christianity,  or  at  least  to  a  sort  of 
Hindu  Arianism.  In  fact,  however,  if  he  declared,  on  that  occasion, 
his  acceptance  of  Christ,  it  was — as  he  distinctly  added — in  the  spirit 
of  the  Hindu  scriptures,  that  is  in  harmony  with  the  eclectic  principle 
which  makes  of  Christ  a  great  religious  reformer,  but  refuses  to  give 
him  the  absolute  pre-eminence  and  the  unique  mission  ascribed  to 
him  by  the  Christian  sects.  "In  Christ  you  see,"  he  continued, 
"  true  Pantheism.  .  .  .  Behold  Christ  comes  to  us  as  an  Asiatic 
in  race,  as  a  Hindu  in  faith,  as  ■  a  kinsman  and  a  brother,  and  he  de- 
mands your  heart's  affection.  Will  you  not  give  him  your  affection  ? 
.  .  .  For  Christ  is  a  true  Yogi,  and  he  will  merely  help  us  to 
realize  our  national  ideal  of  a  Yogi."  In  the  month  of  September 
he  instituted  an  order  of  religious  teachers,  in  which  he  enrolled  him- 
self with  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar  and  three  missionaries.  The 
distinctive  badge  of  the  brotherhood  was  a  dress  of  yellow  cloth, 
known  in  India  by  the  name  of  gairic  bastra. 

Some  time  afterwards,  Keshub  solemnly  proclaimed  the  "  Mother- 
hood of  God,"  as  an  idea  correlative  with  that  of  the  divine  Father- 
hood. "  Many  are  ready  to  worship  me  as  their  Father,"  he  makes 
the  Divinity  say.  "  But  they  know  not  that  I  am  their  Mother,  too, 
tender,  indulgent,  forbearing  and  forgiving.  Ye  shall  go  forth  from 
village  to  village,  singing  my  mercies  and  proclaiming  unto  all  men 
that  I  am  India's  Mother.''1  As  a  result  of  this,  a  band  of  twenty- 
five  persons,  among  whom  were  nine  missionaries,  quitted  Calcutta  on 
the  24th  of  October,  and  travelled  over  about  250  miles  in  five  weeks, 
preaching  everywhere  the  Motherhood  of  God.2 

Meanwhile,  as  early  as  the  month  of  November,  the  India?i  Mirror, 
the  official  organ  of  the  Somaj,  announced  for  an  early  date,  one  of 
those  special  manifestations  of  the  divine  will,  such  as  the  world  re- 
ceives every  time  it  feels  the  need  of  them,  and,  it  was  added,  that 
Keshub  would  be  "  a  part,  a  large  part,  the  central  part "  of  this 
manifestation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  manifestation,  in  question, 
took  place  on  the  22nd  of  January,  1880,  when  Keshub  announced 
urbi  et  orbi  the  birth  of  a  child  destined  to  receive  the  heritage  of 
every  revelation  and  every  religion.     The  child  was  the  Nava  Bidhan 

1.  Indian  Mirror  oi  the  12th  of  October,  1879. 

2.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1 880. 


THE   SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  275 

(the  New  Dispensation),  which  claims  to  be  a  fusion  or  rather  a 
synthesis  of  every  form  of  faith. 

It  should  be  noted  that  Brahmoism  has  always  aimed  at  the 
establishment  of  a  universal  worship  with  principles  common  to  every 
religion.  The  Brahma  Dharma  claims,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  form  the 
residuum  which  persists,  after  the  gradual  elemination  of  everything 
contradictory  and  consequently  false,  in  special  systems  of  religious 
belief.  Wholly  different  from  this  eclecticism  is  the  attitude  of  the 
New  Dispensation  :  it  virtually  contends,  not  that  there  is  truth  in  all 
religions  but  that  every  religion  is  true.1  Keshub  compares  it,  in 
turn,  to  the  thread  which  holds  together  the  pearls  of  a  necklace,  to 
the  ray  of  light  in  which  the  colours  of  the  prism  are  blended,  to  the 
symphony  produced  by  an  accord  of  musical  instruments,  and  to  the 
dissolving  chemical  which  reduces  all  bodies  to  a  single  substance.2 
Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar  further  explains,  that  it  really  is  a  ques- 
tion of  a  Dispensation,  since  in  common  with  all  religion  it  is  a  gift 
of  God — and  of  a  New  Dispensation — not  that  it  had  created  new 
truths,  but  because  it  presents  in  a  new  light  the  truths  partially  pro- 
claimed in  other  religions.3 

All  religious  practices,  rites,  ceremonies,  and  even  all  the  pretended 
revelations,  possess  an  analogous  value  in  this  conception,  so  far  as 
they  serve  for  symbols,  means,  or  agencies  in  the  soul's  effort  to  rise 
towards  God :  the  devotees  of  Chaitanya,  for  instance,  delight  to  sing 
hymns  in  honour  of  Hari  (he  who  blots  out  sin),  a  personification  of 
Vishnu.  Very  well,  then  !  Keshub  will  go  through  town  and  country 
and  sing  the  praises  of  Hari,  with  banners,  trumpets,  and  cymbals, 
whilst  the  crowd  prostrate  themselves  on  his  way,  and,  with  their  heads 
in  the  dust,  cry,  "  Hari,  Hari,  bol !  "  The  old  Aryans,  again,  and  the 
Agnihotri  Brahmans  of  to-day  delight  in  the  special  sacrifices  to  Agni, 
"  the  resplendent  God  of  Fire ;"  hence  Keshub  will  celebrate  the 
Homa  by  ostentatiously  pouring  clarified  butter  on  the  flame  of  the 

1.  Sunday  Mirror  of  October  the  3rd,  1881. 

2.  We  Apostles  of  the  New  Dispensation.     Calcutta,  1881. 

3.  Thcistic  Quarterly  Review  of  January,  1881.  Here,  moreover,  is  the  pro- 
gramme which  Keshub  assigns  to  his  new  creation,  in  the  first  number  of  his  organ, 
The  JVezv  Dispensation.  "  One  God,  one  scripture,  one  Church.  Eternal  progress 
of  the  soul.  Communion  of  prophets  and  saints.  Fatherhood  and  Motherhood  of 
God  ;  brotherhood  of  man  and  sisterhood  of  woman.  Harmony  of  knowledge  and 
holiness,  love  and  work,  Yoga  and  asceticism  in  their  highest  development.  Loyalty 
to  the  Sovereign." — (The  New  Dispensation  of  March  the  24th,  1881.) 


276  THE    SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

sanctuary.1  And  further,  in  the  worship  of  Vishnu,  the  Hindus  are 
accustomed  to  perform  mystic  dances  before  their  idols  :  Keshub  will 
therefore  organise  a  ceremony  in  which  young  men,  dressed  in  garments 
of  different  colours,  will  dance  in  concentric  circles  around  the  "  In- 
visible Mother,"  within  the  mandir,  and  he  himself  will  set  them  an 
example  by  dancing  before  his  vedi  (pulpit),  as  David  did  formerly 
before  the  Ark.1 

Does  it  follow,  as  some  have  maintained,  that  Keshub  thus  effected 
a  return  to  Hinduism  ?  To  assert  this  is  to  misunderstand  the  thought 
which  dictated  his  bearing  toward  the  faith  of  his  fathers.  Here, 
indeed,  is  a  passage  from  an  article  in  which  he  made  a  special  effort 
to  demonstrate  that  there  is  something  in  Hinduism  which  is  neither 
to  be  despised  nor  rejected  : — - 

"  Hindu  idolatry  is  not  to  be  altogether  overlooked  or  rejected.  As 
we  explained  some  time  ago,  it  represents  millions  of  broken  fragments 
of  God.  Collect  them  together  and  you  get  the  indivisible  Divinity. 
.  .  .  We  have  found  out  that  every  idol  worshipped  by  the  Hindus 
represents  an  attribute  of  God,  and  that  each  attribute  is  called  by  a 
different  name.  The  believer  in  the  New  Dispensation  is  required  to 
worship  God  as  the  possessor  of  all  those  attributes,  represented  by 
the  Hindu  as  innumerable  as  three-hundred-and-thirty  millions.  To 
believe  in  an  undivided  God  without  reference  to  those  aspects  of  his 
nature,  is  to  believe  in  an  abstract  God,  and  it  would  lead  us  to 
practical  Rationalism  and  Infidelity.  Nor  can  we  worship  the  same 
God  with  the  same  attribute  investing  Him.  That  would  make  our 
worship  dull,  lifeless,  and  insipid.  If  we  are  to  worship  Him,  we 
should  worship  him  in  all  his  manifestations.  Hence  we  should  con- 
template Him  with  these  numerous  attributes.  We  shall  name  one 
attribute,  Sarasvate,  another  Lakshmi,  another  Mahadeva,  another 
Yagadhatri,  &c,  and  worship  God  each  day  under  a  new  name,  that 
is  to  say,  in  a  new  aspect.  We  do  not  worship  Him  as  Yogi  for 
ever,  or  as  Father  or  as  Mother,  or  as  Lakshmi,  or  as  Sarasvate.  But 
now  the  one  and  then  the  other,  and  so  on,  beholding  our  Hari  in  a 
new  garb  and  in  new  holiness  for  ever.  How  bewitching  the  prospect, 
how  grand  the  picture  !" — (Quoted  from  an  article  The  Philosophy  of 
Idol  Worship,  in  the  Sunday  Mirror  of  the  ist  of  August,  1880.) 

1.  See  a  curious  description  of  this  ceremony  in  The  Brahmo  Year  Book  for 
1881. 


THE   SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  277 

This  conception  is  doubtless  perfectly  reconcilable  with  Hinduism, 
for  Vishnu  expressed  himself  long  since  in  these  eclectic  terms : 
Those  who,  full  of  faith,  worship  other  divinities  honour  me  also, 
although  apart  from  the  ancient  ordinance ;  for  it  is  I  who  receive 
and  preside  over  all  sacrifices.  Only  they  do  not  know  me  in  my 
true  nature. 

But  the  originality  of  the  New  Dispensation  consists  in  the  fact 
that  its  syncretism  overleaps  the  limits  of  Hindu  creeds,  to  place  in 
juxta-position  with  them  the  beliefs  and  ceremonies  held  and  practised 
by  all  the  other  religions,  beginning  with  Christianity.  Even  at  the 
time  of  his  visit  to  Birmingham  in  1870,  Keshub  took  occasion  to 
state  to  the  representatives  of  the  different  sects,  who  were  discount- 
ing his  speedy  conversion  to  Christianity  :  "  I  wish  to  say  I  have  not 
come  to  England  as  one  who  has  yet  to  find  Christ.  When  the 
Roman  Catholic,  the  Protestant,  the  Unitarian,  the  Trinitarian,  the 
Broad  Church,  the  Low  Church  and  the  High  Church  all  come 
round  me  and  offer  me  their  respective  Christs,  I  desire  to  say  to  one 
and  all :  Think  you  that  I  have  no  Christ  within  me  ?  Though  an 
Indian,  I  can  still  humbly  say  :  Thank  God  that  I  have  my  Christ." 
It  is  no  matter  for  surprise,  therefore,  that  like  Mohammed,  he  should 
have  accepted  Christ  as  one  of  the  prophets  of  the  New  Dispensation, 
and  that  he  should  have  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  principal 
rites  of  Christianity  in  his  liturgy,  notably  to  those  of  Baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper.  It  should  be  added,  however,  that  he  baptized 
in  the  name  of  the  Vedantine  Trinity  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  Christian 
Trinity,  and,  as  to  the  Eucharist,  he  administered  it  by  means  of  rice 
and  water. 

The  description  of  these  ceremonies  shows  clearly  the  amount  of 
freedom  with  which  Keshub  treated  the  rites  he  drew  from  other  faiths 
to  enrich  his  liturgy.1  I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  reproduction  of 
the  story  of  his  own  baptism  "  in  the  waters  of  the  Jordan,"  from  The 
Neiv  Dispensation  of  the  16th  of  June.1 

His  followers  being  told  that  they  had  to  reach  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan,  betook  themselves  in  procession  to  a  tank  or  pond  situate  on 
some  property  which  belonged  to  him.  The  banks  were  decorated  with 
foliage  and  flowers ;  the  flag  of  the  New  Dispensation  was  floating  in 

1.  Sivanath  Sastri,  The  Nezv  Dispensation  and  the  Sddhdran  Braluno  Soma/, 
pages  56  and  sea. 


278  THE    SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

the  wind.  When  they  had  all  taken  a  place  on  the  steps  of  the 
reservoir,  in  the  broiling  sun,  the  minister,  seated  on  a  tiger's  skin, 
addressed  the  following  prayer  to  the  great  Varuna,  the  Source  of  Life : 

"  O  thou  great  Varuna,  Water  of  Life  !  Sacred  Water,  mighty 
expanse  of  Seas  and  Oceans  and  Rivers  we  glorify  thee.  Thou  art  not 
God  but  the  Lord  is  in  thee.  Thou  art  full  of  the  beauty  and  glory 
of  Heaven;  each  drop  revealeth  the  Divine  face.  Thou  art  the  Water 
of  Life.  A  most  helpful  friend  art  thou  unto  us.  From  the  clouds 
above  thou  comest  in  copious  showers  to  quench  the  thirst  of  the 
parched  earth,  and  to  fertilize  its  soil.  Thou  fillest  rivers,  seas,  and 
oceans.  Thou  causest  the  dry  earth  to  become  fruitful  and  thou 
producest  plentiful  harvests,  fruits  and  corn  in  abundance  for  our 
nourishment.  O  friend  of  the  human  race,  thou  satisfiest  our  hunger, 
thou  appeasest  our  thirst.  Thou  cleansest  our  body  and  our  home, 
and  washest  away  filth  and  impurity.  O  thou  great  Purifier,  thou 
healest  disease  and  thou  givest  health.  Cooler  and  comforter,  daily 
we  bathe  in  thee  and  feel  refreshed  and  comforted.  Ships,  freighted 
with  riches,  float  upon  thy  bosom  and  bring  us  affluence  from  distant 
shores.  O  serene  pacifier,  thou  extinguishest  all  agony  and  refreshest 
the  troubled  head.  O  true  friend  and  benefactor,  our  venerable 
ancestors  loved  thee,  and  honoured  thee,  and  adored  thee.  And 
to-day,  as  in  days  gone  by,  the  Ganges,  the  Jamouna,  the  Narmada, 
the  Godaveri,  the  Kaveri,  the  Krishna,  and  all  the  sacred  streams  in 
the  land,  are  greatly  revered  by  the  people.  Say,  mighty  Varuna, 
didst  thou  not  suggest  to  Buddha  the  idea  of  Nirwana,  O  thou 
extinguisher  of  the  fire  of  all  pain  and  discomfort.  And  Jesus,  too, 
magnified  thee,  and  he  praised  thee  as  none  ever  did  before.  For  he 
saw  and  found  in  thee  new  life  and  salvation.  In  the  holy  Jordan 
was  the  Son  of  God  baptized.  We  praise  thee,  we  bless  thee,  Holy 
Water  !  Rain  and  river,  lakes,  seas,  and  oceans,  we  bless  and  magnify 
thee !" 

Keshub  then  read  the  chapter  in  which  the  Evangelist  Matthew 
describes  the  baptism  of  Jesus.  Having  done  this  he  explained  that 
Jesus  desired  to  be  baptized  "  because  the  water  was  full  of  God ; " 
then  anointing  himself  with  a  delicate  oil,  he  walked  down  the  steps 
of  the  reservoir,  praying  as  he  went  in  a  loud  voice,  and  immersed 
himself  three  times  up  to  the  neck,  saying  successively :  "  Glory  be 
to  the  Father,  to  the  Son  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost."     After  this,  in 


THE   SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  279 

order  to  specially  honour  the  Trinity,  he  plunged  a  fourth  time  into 
the  water,  uttering  the  words:  "Blessed  be  Sacchidananda"  (the 
Vedantine  Trinity,  Truth,  Wisdom  and  Joy).  He  then  left  the  water, 
but  not  till  he  had  filled  a  vase  that  was  handed  to  him.  This  water 
he  used  to  sprinkle  the  heads  of  his  followers,  crying  as  he  did  so : 
"Santi!"  (peace),  "  Santi !  Santi!"  While  he  was  changing  his 
clothes,  a  part  also  of  the  audience  bathed  in  the  reservoir ;  then  all 
withdrew,  carrying  away  the  Water  of  Peace  (Santijal),  in  earthen  or 
metal  vessels.  In  the  afternoon  the  women  and  children  did  the 
same. 

A  few  days  later  Keshub's  organ,  The  New  Dispensation,  insisted 
upon  the  essentially  independent  and  original  character  of  this 
ceremony.  "  There  was  no  mimicry,"  said  the  writer,  "  no  vulgar  or 
mechanical  imitation  of  Europeanism  or  of  foreign  Christianity.  The 
whole  thing  was  a  Hindu  festival." 

It  is  from  the  Roman  Church  that  Keshub  seems  to  have  borrowed 
the  solemn  vows  of  chastity  and  poverty,  which  on  several  occasions 
he  caused  his  missionaries  to  take,  appearing  however  to  assign  to 
them  only  a  temporary  and  partial  character.  He  drew  from  every 
source,  even  going  so  far,  it  would  appear,  as  to  borrow  from  Comte, 
whom  he  seems  to  have  imitated  in  making  a  distinction  between  an 
abstract  form  of  worship  and  one  of  a  concrete  kind  for  every  day  of 
the  year,  the  former  addressing  itself  to  general  truths  and  social 
aggregates,  the  latter  to  persons  considered  as  types.  Thus  the 
Brahmo  Pocket  Almanac  for  1883,  assigns  respectively  to  each  day  of 
the  week,  a  double  religious  purpose,  which  is  indicated  by  the  follow- 
ing arrangement : — 

"  I.  Harmony  of  the  Prophets. — Monday  is  dedicated  to  the 
Rishis ;  Tuesday  to  Chaitanya ;  Wednesday  to  Moses ;  Thursday  to 
Socrates  ;  Friday  to  Buddha ;  Saturday  to  men  of  learning ;  Sunday 
to  Jesus  Christ. 

"  II.  Order  of  Duties. — Monday  is  dedicated  to  the  family  and  to 
children  ;  Tuesday  to  servants ;  Wednesday  to  benefactors ;  Thursday 
to  enemies ;  Friday  to  the  inferior  creatures ;  Saturday  to  the  poor  ; 
Sunday  to  the  holy  dead. 

In  the  same  order  of  ideas  we  find  what  Keshub  termed  the  "  com- 
munion of  saints,"  which  is  one  of  his  most  curious  creations,  and 
was  conceived  of  and  carried  out  in   the  following  manner :   The 


280  THE    SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

pious  Brahmos  choose  some  celebrated  historical  personage — Moses, 
Mohammed,  Socrates,  Chaitanya,  Theodore  Parker,  &c,  and  during 
a  week  they  occupy  themselves  exclusively  in  the  study  of  his  works 
or  in  meditating  upon  his  career.  This  done,  they  meet  in  a  place 
transformed  for  the  occasion  into  some  noted  locality  in  Palestine, 
Greece,  Arabia,  or  America.  There  the  prophet  or  philosopher  is 
invoked  in  imagination ;  an  attempt  is  made  to  recall  the  conditions 
and  surroundings  of  his  life ;  a  conversation  is  entered  upon  respecting 
the  true  sense  of  his  teaching ;  and  finally  opinions  are  expressed  as 
to  what  he  would  say  and  do  if  living  in  our  day.  These  are  what 
Keshub  called  subjective  pilgrimages. 

"  We  have  been  asked,"  he  says,  "  to  explain  what  we  mean  by  these 
pilgrimages.  They  are  simply  a  practical  application  of  this  principle 
of  subjectivity  which  characterizes  the  New  Dispensation.  As  pilgrims 
we  approach  the  great  saints,  killing  the  distance  of  time  and  space. 
We  enter  into  them  and  they  enter  us.  In  our  souls  we  cherish 
them  and  we  imbibe  their  character  and  principles.  We  are  above 
the  popular  error  that  materializes  the  spirits  of  the  departed  saints 
and  clothes  them  again  with  the  flesh  and  the  bones  which  they  have 
for  ever  cast  away.  Nor  do  we  hold  these  spirits  to  be  omnipresent. 
We  believe  they  still  exist;  but  where  they  are  we  cannot  tell. 
Wherever  they  may  be,  it  is  possible  for  us  earthly  pilgrims,  if  we  are 
only  men  of  faith  and  prayer,  to  realize  them  in  consciousness.  If 
they  are  not  personally  present  with  us,  they  may  be  spiritually  drawn 
into  our  life  and  character.  They  may  be  made  to  live  and  grow  in 
us." 

The  founder  of  the  New  Dispensation  called  even  the  theatre  into 
requisition,  by  organizing  at  Calcutta  the  representation  of  a  drama, 
entitled  "  The  Harmony  of  Religions,"  which  was  due  to  the  pen  of 
one  of  his  followers.  Keshub  himself  appeared  on  the  scene  as  a 
juggler.1  Among  other  "tricks"  which  he  performed  before  the  public, 
was  that  of  the  instantaneous  fusion  of  a  cross,  a  crescent,  the  Om 
(the  sacred  symbol  of  the  Vedantines),  the  trident  of  Siva  and  the 
Khunti  of  the  Vishnuites  into  a  single  symbol.  Another  feat  con- 
sisted in  showing  the  body  of  a  bird,  taken  to  represent  the  sacred 
dove  which  "  descended  from  heaven  eighteen  centuries  ago,  and  has 
been  struck  down  to-day  by  the  blows  of  human  reason."     Suddenly, 

I.  Brahmo  Year-Book  for  1882,  page  56. 


THE    SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW    DISPENSATION.  281 

the  dead  bird  disappeared,  and  a  living  bird  came  down,  as  from 
heaven,  bearing  on  its  neck  a  card  or  ticket,  with  this  inscription  : — 
Narva  Bidhaner  j'az,  Salya  Dharma  Samanvaia  ("  Victory  to  the 
New  Dispensation  !     Let  there  be  a  harmony  of  all  religions.")1 

All  this  exuberance  of  symbolism  greatly  shocked  not  only  the 
Brahmoists  of  the  old  school,  who  had  passed  their  life  in  combatting 
the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  idolatry,  but  also  the  Hindus  and  the 
orthodox  Christians,  who  were  scandalized  by  this  eccentric  use  and, 
in  a  sense,  parody  of  their  most  sacred  ceremonies.  In  England, 
above  all,  Keshub  brought  about  the  final  alienation  of  those  who  had 
formerly  felt  the  warmest  sympathy  with  his  movement,  among  whom 
Miss  Collet  may  be  specially  mentioned.  Max  Muller  and  Dean 
Stanley,  perhaps,  stood  alone  in  asking  the  public  to  be  on  their 
guard  against  any  hasty  condemnation  of  a  movement  which  it  was 
very  difficult,  they  urged,  to  judge  of  impartially  at  a  distance.  "It  is 
the  old  story  over  again,"  wrote  the  eminent  Indianist  of  Oxford,  to 
The  Times  of  the  24th  of  March,  1880.  "Nothing  is  so  difficult  for 
a  reformer,  particularly  for  a  religious  reformer,  as  not  to  allow  the 
incense  offered  by  his  followers  to  darken  his  mental  vision,  and  not 

1.  The  hymns  of  the  New  Dispensation  reveal  the  same  mystic  eclecticism. 
Here  is  a  specimen  of  them,  "The  Mystic  Dance,"  borrowed  from  The  New 
Dispensation  of  the  24th  of  March,  1881  : — "Chanting  the  name  of  Hari,  the 
saints  in  heaven  dance.  My  Gouranga  (Chaitanya)  dances  amid  a  band  of  devotees  : 
how  beautiful  his  eyes  which  shower  love  !  Jesus  dances ;  Moses  dances  with  hands 
upraised  ;  Devarshi  Narad  dances,  playing  on  the  harp.  Old  King  David  dances, 
and  with  him  Janak  and  Yudhisthir.  The  great  Yogi  Mahadeo  dances  in  joy,  and 
with  him  dances  John,  accompanied  by  his  disciples.  Nanak  and  Prahlad  dance ; 
dances  Nityananda  ;  and  in  their  midst  dance  Paul  and  Mohammed.  Dhruba 
dances  ;  Suk  dances ;  dances  Haridas ;  and  in  their  company  dance  all  the  servants 
of  the  Lord.  Sankar  and  Wasudeb  dance — Ram  and  Sakya,  Muni,  Yogis,  devotees, 
ascetics,  workers  and  wise  men.  Dadu  and  Confucius  dance — Kabir  and  Toolsy  ; 
Hindus  and  Mussulmans  dance,  on  their  lips  the  smile  of  love.  The  sinner  dances; 
the  saint  dances ;  the  poor  and  the  rich  dance  together ;  the  women  sing  '  Glory, 
glory,'  with  sweet  voices.  Renouncing  the  pride  of  caste  and  rank,  the  Brahmin 
and  the  Chandal  dance  embracing  each  other.  Surrounded  by  saints,  in  the  centre 
is  Sri  Hari,  the  Lord  of  all,  and  all  dance  unitedly,  with  hands  round  each  other's 
neck.  And  in  this  holy  company  dance  the  believers  in  the  New  Dispensation, 
killing  the  distance  of  space  and  time.  The  fishes  dance  in  the  sea,  and  the  fowls 
in  the  air ;  and  the  trees  and  plants  dance,  their  branches  sporting  with  the  wind. 
The  Bible  and  the  Vedas  dance  together  with  the  Bhagavat ;  the  Puran  and  the 
Koran  dance,  joined  in  love.  The  scientist  and  the  ascetic  and  the  poet  dance, 
inebriated  with  the  new  wine  of  the  New  Dispensation.  The  world  below  and  the 
world  above  dance,  chanting  the  name  of  Hari,  as  they  hear  the  sweet  Gospel  of 
the  New  Dispensation." 


282  THE   SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

to  mistake  the  divine  accents  of  truth  for  a  voice  wafted  from  the 
clouds.  In  this  respect,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  has  shared  in  the 
weakness  of  older  prophets ;  but  let  us  not  forget  that  he  possesses 
also  a  large  share  of  their  strength  and  virtue.  .  .  .  His  utter- 
ances of  late  have  shown  signs,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  of  an  overwrought 
brain  and  of  an  over-sensitive  heart.  He  sometimes  seems  on  the 
verge  of  very  madness  of  faith.  But  I  fear  for  his  health  and  his 
head  far  more  than  for  his  heart,  and  I  should  deeply  regret  if  any 
harsh  words  from  those  who  ought  to  know  best  how  to  make  allow- 
ance for  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  all  religious  reformers  should 
embitter  a  noble  life  already  full  of  many  bitternesses." 

The  eminent  Sanscrit  scholar  divined  but  too  truly  what  was  about 
to  take  place.  So  great  was  the  spiritual  exaltation  of  Keshub's  life, 
that  it  could  not  fail  to  rapidly  wear  out  his  exceptionally  nervous 
organization,  and  as  early  as  1882  he  suffered  from  the  first  attacks  of 
the  malady  which  suddenly  became  more  acute  in  the  autumn  of 
1883,  and  carried  him  off  on  the  6th  of  the  following  January,  when 
he  had  but  just  entered  upon  his  forty-fifth  year.  Among  the  last 
persons  who  had  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  him  on  his  sick 
bed,  were,  by  a  strange  and  significant  coincidence,  the  venerable 
Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  the  Anglican  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  and  the 
Hindu  Paramhansa  of  Dakhinaswar,  that  is  to  say  the  principal  repre- 
sentatives of  the  three  great  religions  which  he  had  specially  attempted 
to  fuse  together  in  the  New  Dispensation. 

His  death  was  regarded  throughout  India  as  a  national  misfortune. 
The  entire  press  of  England  as  well  as  of  India,  spoke  in  sympathetic 
terms  of  the  high  moral  character  and  the  eminent  services  of  the 
deceased.  At  the  same  time  expressions  of  condolence  were  received 
from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  even  from  Europe.  Queen  Victoria, 
for  instance,  telegraphed  to  the  family  an  expression  of  her  sympathy 
and  regret.  Even  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  putting  aside  its  hostile 
opinions,  passed  a  resolution  in  acknowledgment  of  the  long  and 
faithful  services  rendered  by  the  deceased  to  the  cause  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj.  Finally,  the  students  of  Calcutta  met  and  decided  to  com- 
mence a  subscription  in  order  to  raise  a  monument  to  his  memory. 

The  second  day  after  death,  the  body,  which  was  literally  hidden 
by  flowers,  was  carried  on  a  bier  to  the  place  of  cremation  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ganges.     The  banner  of  the  New  Dispensation  was 


THE   SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  283 

borne  at  the  head  of  the  procession,  and  behind  the  corpse  there  was 
a  vast  crowd  who  joined  in  singing  the  hymn  :  "Jai,jai,  Satchita  Nan- 
dun  jai"  (Glory  to  him  who  has  a  pure  heart.)  The  bier  was  placed 
on  a  pile  of  sandal-wood,  whilst  the  Upadhyaya  chanted  the  mantras 
of  the  Brahmoist  ritual.  As  the  orb  of  day  was  sinking  beneath  the 
horizon,  the  eldest  son  of  the  deceased,  Karvuna  Chunder  Sen,  placed 
the  torch  to  the  funeral  pile,  pronouncing  these  words :  "  In  the  name 
of  God  I  convey  the  sacred  fire  to  these  last  remains.  Let  the  mortal 
part  burn  and  perish ;  the  immortal  part  will  survive.  O  Lord,  the 
liberated  soul  rejoices  in  thee,  in  thy  blessed  abode."  The  flame  then 
rose  in  the  quiet  evening  air,  whilst  all  present  repeated  the  verse : 
"  Glory  to  the  Redeemer  who  is  Truth,  Wisdom  and  Joy.  Divine 
grace  alone  prevails.  Peace !  (santi),  Peace  !  Peace  ! "  By  about 
eleven  o'clock,  all  was  over.  The  ashes  of  the  late  minister  were 
placed  in  an  urn  and  carried  provisionally  to  the  Chapel  adjoining 
Lily  Cottage. 

Is  the  day  come  for  justly  estimating  Keshub's  work?  For  my 
own  part,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  the  path  upon  which  he  had 
entered  was  full  of  equivocal  positions  and  dangers.  With  the  tendency 
of  the  Hindu  sects  to  deify  their  gurus,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the 
founder  of  the  New  Dispensation  may  be  raised  to  the  dignity  of  an 
Avatar,  and  his  Church  become  a  simple  variety  of  the  Vishnu  sects. 
All  those  who  have  studied  the  past  of  India  know,  as  M.  A.  Barth 
has  so  well  said,  that  the  history  of  religious  reforms  among  the 
Hindus,  is  a  story  of  perpetual  and  painful  re-commencement. 
Vigorous  efforts  and  high  purpose  mark  the  early  stages,  which  are 
soon  followed  by  irremedial  decay ;  while  the  final  result  is  another 
sect  and  a  new  superstition.1 

Already,  indeed,  certain  of  the  ceremonies  which  Keshub  introduced 
into  his  Church  have  proved  how  much  his  teaching  tended  to  develope 
the  spirit  of  contemplation  and  renunciation,  which  has  always  been 
a  scourge  for  India;  whilst  others  were  but  regrettable  landmarks 
along  the  road  which  leads  to  the  creation  of  theocracies.  And  further, 
it  is  very  clear  that  the  excess  of  his  symbolism  was  calculated  to 
absorb  the  activity  of  his  disciples  in  a  multitude  of  odd  and  hetero- 
genous rites,  absolutely  at  variance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
modern  spirit,  if  we  take  up  the  European  stand-point. 

I.  A.  Barth,  Les  Religions  de  Vlnde. 


284  THE   SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

But  regard  must  be  had  to  the  external  circumstances  under  which 
a  religious  reform  is  carried  on.  It  remains  to  be  seen,  therefore, 
whether  the  New  Dispensation,  with  all  its  mystic  and  ritualistic 
exaggerations,  is  not  better  fitted  to  act  upon  the  popular  mind  of 
India,  than  the  sober  and  more  enlightened  faith  of  the  Adi  or  even 
of  the  Sadharan  Somaj. 

Keshub,  and  this  point  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized,  was,  in 
spite  of  his  errors  and  eccentricities,  a  person  of  superior  power,  one 
of  those  men  who  may  become  a  Buddha,  a  Mohammed,  or  a  Luther, 
according  to  the  nature  of  their  surroundings.  To  have  seen  him  or 
even  to  have  taken  note  of  his  work,  was  sufficient  to  explain  the 
ascendancy  he  possessed  over  his  followers,  and  which  he  also  exercised 
upon  the  minds  of  the  masses.  On  more  than  one  occasion,  I  have 
severely  condemned  his  acts,  and  almost  despaired  of  his  future.  But 
whenever  I  turned  to  his  discourses  and  writings,  I  again  felt  in  some 
measure  under  the  charm  which  arose  from  his  personalty  and  genius. 

The  following  critique  of  Keshub's  character  by  one  of  his  principal 
opponents,  Sivanath  Sastri,  the  missionary  of  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  will 
probably  not  be  without  interest : — "  Throughout  his  career,  Mr.  Sen 
has  been  distinguished  for  three  things  :  a  proud  and  indomitable 
spirit,  a  fine  and  powerful  intellect,  and  a  strong  and  vigorous  will. 
.  .  .  Added  to  these,  there  is  an  earnest,  fervid,  and  enthusiastic 
temperament.  .  .  .  Like  every  other  proud  nature,  he  is  shy  to 
strangers,  but  full  of  pleasant  humour  to  friends,  mild  and  affable  to 
inferiors,  but  haughty  and  untractable  to  the  least  show  of  superiority 
in  others,  and  specially  under  opposition,  conceiving  his  plans  in  silence 
and  carrying  them  out  with  but  half-revealed  purpose.  He  does  not 
condescend  to  take  into  his  confidence  even  his  immediate  associates 
about  his  plans,  and  has  no  friend  properly  so-called.  He  is  not  alto- 
gether above  the  art  of  over-reaching  an  enemy  by  clever  shifts  or  of 
trying  to  compromise  him  by  unfair  and  ungenerous  means.  At  times 
he  is  carried  away  by  his  wounded  pride  to  use  harsh  and  abusive 
epithets  against  his  opponents.  Yet  he  has  been  an  example  to  many 
of  us  of  purity  of  private  conduct,  earnestness  of  purpose  and  of  devo- 
tedness  to  noble  pursuits.  Many  of  his  ways  have  been  certainly  those 
of  a  man  of  faith,  and  many  of  the  principles  of  action  he  enunciated 
for  his  Church  show  considerable  depth  of  spiritual  insight  and  keen- 


THE    SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 


285 


ness  of  moral  perception.  .  .  .  But  Mr.  Sen  has,  in  the  meantime, 
allowed  himself  to  be  led  astray  by  an  unfortunate  idea — the  idea  of 
being  a  singularly  inspired  man."  * 

It  is  incontestable  that  the  religious  ideal  which  Keshub  set  before 
his  disciples  lacks  neither  in  opportuneness  nor  in  elevation.  He 
formulated  it  himself,  in  a  somewhat  eccentric  fashion,  by  making  the 
subjoined  parallel  between  the  old  and  new  man,  which  was  published 
in  the  second  number  of  his  journal,  The  New  Dispensation  : — 


"The  Old  Man. 

Asiatic  or  European. 

Hindu  or  Christian. 

Mystical    recluse   and    sleepy 

Quietist. 
Trinitarian,  who  hates  Unitarian. 


"The  New  Man. 

Asiatic  and  European. 

Hindu  and  Christian. 

Mystical    philanthropist    and 
practical  Quietist. 

Unitarian,  who  believes  in  the 
trinity  of  Unitarian  manifes- 
tations. 

Eclectic,  who  includes  all  sects. 

Chemical  fusion  in  life. 


Sectarian,  who  excludes  all  other 

sects. 
Mechanical    combination    of 

tnuths    and    characters    by 

the  intellect. 
Exceptional  inspiration. 
Believes  in  invisible  spirit  or 

visible  idols. 
Honours   Christ,   but  reviles 

Socrates  and  Chaitanya. 
Sees  multiplicity  and  confusion. 
Destructive. 
Sees  only  errors  in  others,  and 

frets. 
Decrepit  and  cold." 

The  really  questionable  feature  of  the  New  Dispensation  is  the 
doctrine  of  Adesh.  When,  in  accordance  with  the  doctrine  of  Kant, 
we  seek  the  voice  of  God  in  the  intuitions  of  conscience,  we  are 
simply  acting  upon  an  ennobling  and  fruitful  theory,  as  evidenced  by 
the  American  Transcendentalists.     Still  it  must  be  on  the  condition 


Universal  inspiration. 
Beholds  the  Spirit-God. 

Honours  all  prophets  in  Christ. 

Sees  unity  and  harmony. 
Constructive. 

Sees  only  their  virtues,  and  im- 
proves. 
Always  fresh  and  young." 


I.    T/ie  New  Dispensation  and  the  Saddran  Brahmo  Somdj,  page  58. 


286  THE    SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

that  we  subject  our  impulses  to  the  control  of  observation  and  reason. 
Keshub,  in  truth,  seemed  to  admit  that  in  order  to  constitute  Adesh, 
inspiration  must  be  based  upon  certain  "objective  considerations," 
resulting  from  some  particular  set  of  circumstances  and  leading  to  the 
same  conclusion.  As  regards  the  marriage  of  his  daughter,  for  in- 
stance, these  were :  the  political  necessities  of  Couch-Behar ;  the 
personal  merits  of  the  young  Maharajah ;  the  advantages  to  Brahmo- 
ism  which  were  likely  to  result  from  this  union,  &c.  But  if  objective 
indications  are  to  concur  with  inspiration,  to  determine  any  given  line 
of  conduct,  what  purpose  is  served  by  the  Adesh  ?  And  if  they  do 
not  thus  concur,  what  is  to  decide  between  them  ?  To  see  the  dangers 
of  this  system,  it  suffices  to  listen  to  the  extreme  champions  of  the 
New  Dispensation,  such  as  the  Pandit  Dourga  Das  Ray,  who,  in 
urging  the  uncertain  and  relative  character  of  the  moral  laws,  denies 
to  conscience  the  right  to  decide  in  matters  of  inspiration,  and  declares 
that  the  commands  of  God  are  independent  of  the  "  so-called  common 
morality,"1  or  further,  like  the  writers  of  the  Theistic  Record  of  Dacca, 
who  expressed  themselves  thus  in  1881  :  "Nothing  with  a  Brahmo  is 
'  good '  which  is  not  a  command  of  God,  and  nothing  is  His  command 
unless  every  man  receives  it  directly  from  Him.  We  have  no  scrip- 
ture, no  revelation,  no  Shastra,  no  Veda,  save  His  words :  every  little 
thing  of  our  life — whether  we  should  eat  pumpkins  on  the  first  day  of 
the  month  or  go  towards  the  north  on  a  Tuesday — should  be  regulated 
by  His  living  command.  Here  then  is  something  peculiar,  something 
new.  We  Brahmos  have  to  go  to  God  for  every  trifle  that  we  do, 
while  people  of  other  religions  have  books,  men  and  their  own  con- 
science for  their  guides."2  This  is  the  stumbling-block  at  which  the 
New  Dispensation  will  fall  and  be  dashed  to  pieces,  if  the  most 
enlightened  of  Keshub's  followers  do  not,  now  their  leader  is  gone, 
hasten  to  correct  his  theory  of  Adesh,  by  restricting  it  on  the  one 
hand  to  super-sensible  things  which  transcend  experience,  while 
extending  it  on  the  other,  in  a  certain  measure,  to  the  whole  human 
race,  and  subordinating  it  to  the  authority  of  reason,  which  is  also  of 
divine  origin. 

With  the  exception  of  this  unfortunate  theory  which  is  not,  indeed, 
an  essential  element  of  the  New  Dispensation,   Keshub  does   not 

1.  Brahmo  Year-Book  for  1880,  page  100. 

2.  Brahmo  Year-Book  for  1881,  page  95. 


THE   SYNCRETISM    OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  287 

appear  to  have  abandoned  the  Rationalistic  method  in  spite  of  his 
exaggerated  mysticism.  Among  the  ceremonies  and  discourses  to 
which  I  have  alluded,  there  are  certain  details  which  may  provoke  a 
smile,  as  does  the  language  of  all  religious  and  social  symbolism  of  an 
unfamiliar  character.  Then  again,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  excess  of 
ritualism  has  proved  obnoxious,  above  all  in  England,  to  persons  who 
from  education  and  surroundings  feel  a  profound  repugnance  for 
everything  that  savours  of  a  sacerdotal  or  even  of  a  sacramental 
order.  It  is  but  just  to  remark,  however,  that  such  is  by  no  means 
the  characteristic  of  the  rites  originated  or  reproduced  by  Keshub. 
He  has  told  us  so  himself  in  formal  terms  : — "  Do  we  mean  to  establish 
the  Rice  Ceremony  (the  Sacrament  of  Communion)  and  the  Flag 
Ceremony  as  permanent  institutions  in  our  Church  ?  No.  They  are 
meant  to  explain  and  spiritualize  and  fulfil  corresponding  ordinances 
in  the  older  Churches.  As  the  pulpit  of  the  New  Dispensation  ex- 
pounds texts  in  the  ancient  Scriptures,  so  are  these  novel  ceremonies 
offered  as  practical  sermons  on  the  deep  philosophy  of  the  rites 
observed  in  previous  dispensations."1 

.  Nor  can  Keshub  be  charged  even  with  having  aimed  at  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  esoteric  form  of  faith,  to  be  allegorically  interpreted  by 
its  adepts  and  accepted  literally  by  the  crowd.  He  let  no  opportunity 
pass,  indeed,  of  explaining  the  real  significance  of  his  symbolism. 
"  We  do  not  believe,"  he  added,  in  the  article  from  which  I  have  just 
quoted,  "in  lifeless  ceremonies.  Read  absorption  in  place  of  'rice,' 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  in  lieu  of  '  banner,'  and  our  metaphors  will 
become  clear." 

We  have  already  seen  the  meaning  he  attached  to  his  celebration 
of  baptism  and  to  his  communion  of  saints.  When  celebrating  the 
Arati  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Vishnuites  and  the  Sikhs,  he  was 
accustomed  to  place  on  the  altar  the  traditional  panchadripa  (a  lamp 
with  five  branches  which  the  devotees  are  in  the  habit  of  swinging 
before  their  idol),  and  he  would  explain  it,  at  once,  as  the  symbol  of 
the  five  inner  lights  which  permit  the  worshipper  to  rise  to  the  con- 
templation of  the  divine  countenance :  purity,  love,  faith,  bhakti,  and 
knowledge.  As  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  JToma,  Protab  Chunder 
Mozoumdar  thus  reveals  to  us  its  significance :  "  The  recent  Horn 
ceremony  performed  by  the  minister  and  missionaries  of  the  Brahmo 

I.  The  second  number  of  The  New  Dispensation,  31st  of  March,  1881. 


288  THE    SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION. 

Somaj  of  India,  represents  only  the  idea  of  burning  the  passions  in 
effigy.  The  bundle  of  dry  hard  sticks  represented  the  lusts  of  the 
flesh  tied  to  the  heart  by  a  knot  which  cannot  be  loosened,  each 
passion  strengthening  the  neighbouring  ones,  and  all  of  them  together 
forming  a  mass  of  impenetrable  obstruction  to  piety  and  holiness,  able 
to  resist  strong  and  repeated  attempts  to  break  through.  Nothing 
.  but  fire  can  destroy  such  a  heap  of  tough  unbreakable  wood.  That 
fire  is  the  fire  of  holy  will,  kindled  and  breathed  upon  by  the  Spirit  of 
the  eternal  fire  of  holiness.  The  wind  and  clarified  butter  that  aid 
the  flame  are  our  prayers  and  aspirations,  the  great  aid  of  a  pure 
human  will."1 

We  may  not  care  for  allegories,  nor,  speaking  generally,  for  symbolism 
at  all ;  but  in  this  respect  the  New  Dispensation  does  not  differ  from 
an  institution  which  is  most  extended  and  most  popular  in  all  Anglo- 
Saxon  countries  :  Freemasonry,  which  also  symbolizes  by  external 
rites  the  traditions  of  its  history  and  the  principles  of  its  humanitarian 
philosophy. 

And  if  the  ceremonies  instituted  by  Keshub,  instead  of  being  drawn 
from  a  single  system  of  religion,  are  borrowed  indifferently  from  all, 
is  there  any  ground  for  blaming  him  in  this  which  is,  in  reality,  a 
pledge  and  a  proof  of  toleration  ?  The  fusion  of  all  the  forms  of 
faith  into  a  single  religious  synthesis,  has  been,  in  every  age,  the 
dream  of  many  a  large  and  enlightened  mind  in  advance  of  its  time. 
Aristotle,  Cleanthes,  Seneca,  Maximus  of  Tyre,  Confucius,  Kabir, 
the  neo-Platonists,  the  Authors  of  the  Upanishads,  the  Sofis  of  Persia, 
as  well  as  German  Idealists  and  the  contemporary  students  of 
comparative  theology,  have  all  shown  the  identity  of  the  religious 
sentiment  under  the  multiplicity  of  its  manifestations.  A  few  thinkers 
such  as  Proclus,  Jambilicus  and  Alexander  Severus  in  antiquity, 
Akbar  in  India  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
Auguste  Comte  in  our  own  day,  have  even  attempted  to  found  a 
universal  religion — not,  indeed,  by  eliminating  the  differential  elements 
of  the  principal  forms  of  faith,  after  the  manner  of  English  Theism 
and  American  Transcendentalism — but  by  commingling  either  the  rites 
and  symbols  or  the  names  and  forms  under  which  their  adherents 
conceived  the  Supreme  object  of  worship. 

Such,  too,  was  the  work  commenced  by  Keshub,  and  if  there  is 

I.    The  Theistic  Review  and  Interpreter  of  1881,  page  15- 


THE    SYNCRETISM   OF   THE   NEW   DISPENSATION.  289 

any  difference,  it  is  that  the  author  of  the  New  Dispensation  suc- 
ceeded in  founding  a  religion,  while  his  predecessors  scarcely  did 
more  than  carry  their  syncretism  beyond  the  sphere  of  individual 
conception.  Roman  Polytheism  stands  alone,  perhaps,  as  the  only 
instance  of  an  ultimate  amalgamation  of  this  kind ;  but  even  in  that 
case,  it  was  a  juxta-position,  rather  than  a  synthesis  of  the  various 
forms  of  religion  practised  in  the  Empire.  It  was  reserved  for  the 
New  Dispensation  to  offer  us  a  living  Church  formed,  as  a  single  con- 
ception, with  materials  drawn  from  the  most  diverse  faiths,  and  this 
is  not  one  of  the  characteristics  which  contribute  least  to  render  its 
development  so  interesting  to  all  who  are  engaged  in  the  study  of 
religious  history. 


CHAPTER      XV, 


BRAHMOISM  AND  THE  RELIGIOUS  FUTURE  OF  INDIA. 


Present  strength  and  ramifications  of  Brahmoism— Dayananda  Sarasvati  Sivami 
and  the  Vedantine  movement  of  the  Arya  Somajes — The  Theosophic  Society  of 
India — Orthodox  Associations  of  the  Dharma  Sabhas — Religious  movements 
beyond  the  pale  of  Hinduism — The  Anjumans — The  Guru  Jurgi  among  the 
Bhils— Disintegration  of  Hinduism:  What  will  take  its  place ?— Condition  and 
prospects  of  Islamism  in  India — Negative  result  of  Christian  missions — Parallel 
of  religious  progress  between  the  Aryans  of  the  East  and  of  the  West — Satisfaction 
offered  by  Brahmoism  to  the  aspirations  of  the  Hindu  mind  and  the  requirements 
of  modern  civilization — Affinity  of  Hindu  speculation  to  our  most  recent  scientific 
theories — The  idea  of  the  Unknowable  in  Brahmoism — Re-action  of  Oriental 
genius  upon  the  religious  culture  of  Western  society— Professor  Tyndall's  pre- 
diction to  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar— Max  Midler  and  Von  Hartmann's 
opinions  as  to  the  influence  which  the  beliefs  of  India  are  destined  to  exercise 
on  the  religious  future  of  the  West. 


It  was  to  be  feared  that  the  divisions  of  Brahmoism  would  prove 
fatal  to  the  cause  of  religious  Rationalism  in  India.  From  the  inevit- 
able confusion  of  such  schisms,  more  than  one  superficial  observer  has 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  work  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy  is  about  to 
disappear  by  the  return  of  some  to  the  bosom  of  Hinduism,  and  the 
conversion  of  others  to  European  scepticism.  Isolated  cases  may 
have  justified  this  double  prediction ;  but  the  signs  of  disorganization 
have  been  of  short  duration,  and  to-day,  Brahmoism  has  resumed  its 
former  progressive  course.  In  1 87  7,  on  the  eve  of  the  secession  of 
the  Sadharan  Somaj,  its  Churches  were  107  in  number.  To-day  they 
exceed  173  ;x  and  its  journals  or  periodical  publications  have  in- 
creased by  ten  within  the  same  period.2 

1.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1872.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that 
some  of  these  new  Somajes  are  due  to  schisms  in  the  old  congregations,  as  a  result 
of  the  events  of  1878. 

2.  Taking  into  account  the  entire  number,  there  are  seventeen  printed  in 
Bengali;  four  in  English;  one  in  both  these  languages;  one  in  Urdu;  one  in 
Canara  ;  two  in  both  Tamoul  and  English  ;  two  in  Telugu  and  English  ;  and  one 
in  English  and  Marathi.  A  single  one  of  these  organs  appears  daily  :  the  National 
Paper  of  Calcutta;  and  eight  are  weekly.  Among  the  monthly  publications  in 
Bengali,  there  is  one  for  women,  another  for  workmen,  and  a  third,  which  is  illus- 
trated, for  the  use  of  children.     (See  the  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1882.) 


292  BRAHMOISM   AND  THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF    INDIA. 

The  Brahmos  may  be  divided  at  present  into  four  groups  : 

I.  The  Somajes  which  have  accepted  the  New  Dispensation.  They 
consist  of  about  twenty  of  the  old  congregations  which  remained 
faithful  to  Keshub,  together  with  a  certain  number  of  recent  formation. 
Some  of  these  Somajes  vie  with  the  Calcutta  congregation  in  their  life 
and  fervour.  This  is  specially  true  of  that  at  Dacca,  which  is  dis- 
tinguished by  the  number  and  originality  of  its  publications ;  that  of 
Chittagong,  which  has  become  a  centre  of  active  proselytism  among 
the  masses  of  the  people;  and  that  of  Bhagalpour,  where  the  new 
mandir  bears  on  its  facade  both  a  cross  and  a  crescent,  interwoven 
with  symbolic  representations  belonging  to  Buddhism  and  to  the 
various  Hindu  faiths.  At  Calcutta,  too,  Keshub  attracted  larger  and 
larger  numbers  down  to  the  close  of  his  work.1  Meanwhile,  and  it  is 
a  happy  augury,  there  is  a  new  growth  of  the  institutions  designed  to 
promote  educational  and  social  reform,  which  were  more  or  less  neg- 
lected for  several  years.  The  principal  educational  establishment,  the 
Albert  School,  which  was  affiliated  to  the  University  of  Calcutta  in 
1881,  contained  at  that  date  667  pupils.  The  Indian  Reform  Asso- 
ciation has  laid  the  foundations  of  an  Institution  for  the  superior 
education  of  women,  which  was  opened  in  1883.  The  Indian  Mirror 
has  been  replaced  by  a  journal  that  is  better  edited,  The  Liberal,  with 
a  supplement  devoted  exclusively  to  religious  questions. 

II.  The  congregations  which  constitute  the  Sadharan  Somaj.  This 
association  represents,  as  we  have  seen,  the  true  tradition  of  Brahmoism, 
and  it  has  taken  up,  as  a  part  of  its  work,  all  the  institutions  intended 
to  promote  religious  and  social  reform,  which  had  long  been  the 
monopoly  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj.  The  Somajes  which  it  com- 
prises within  its  pale  are  twenty-nine  in  number.  Its  principal  organ 
in  the  English  language  is  The  Brahmo  Public  Opinion,  which  discusses, 
from  an  elevated  stand-point,  religious  and  political  questions  relating 
to  India.  The  President  of  the  Association  is  a  contemporary  and 
friend  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  the  Babu  Chib  Chunder  Seb. 

III.  The  Adi  Somaj.  One  result  of  the  crisis  described  in  the  pre- 
vious chapter,  has  been  to  recall  public  attention  to  the  Adi  Somaj  of 
Debendra  Nath  Tagore.  This  latter,  who  could  hardly  have  imagined 
a  more  striking  form  of  revenge  in  relation  to  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 

I.   Brahmo  Year  Book  for  188 1,  page  II. 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE  RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF    INDIA.  293 

spontaneously  approached  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  and  in  1880,  the 
oldest  Church  of  Brahmoism  was  seen  joining  with  the  youngest  to 
celebrate  in  a  fitting  manner  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Rajah 
Ram  Mohun  Roy.  It  is  now  several  years  since  the  venerable 
Debendra  Nath  Tagore  withdrew  to  the  Himalaya  Mountains,  where 
he  enjoys  well-earned  repose.  From  time  to  time  he  quits  his  retreat 
in  order  to  preside  over  certain  religious  ceremonies  in  neighbouring 
Somajes,  and  he  is  always  welcomed  with  sympathy  and  respect  by 
both  the  old  and  new  Brahmos.  His  successor  in  the  presidency  of 
the  Association  is  the  Babu  Raj  Narain  Bose,  a  speaker  and  writer  of 
great  merit,  who  has  been  engaged  since  1880  in  the  publication  of 
the  complete  works  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy  in  the  English  Language.1 
The  Adi  Somaj  professes  the  same  religious  principles  as  the  Sadharan 
Somaj ;  but  it  maintains  a  certain  reserve  as  to  the  abandonment  of 
ancient  social  usages.1 

IV.  A  certain  number  of  congregations  which  share  the  religious 
opinions  of  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  but  have  remained  on  good  terms 
with  the  New  Dispensation,  since  they  have  refused  to  take  sides  with 
either  of  the  two  groups  and  have  welcomed  with  the  same  heartiness 
missionaries  from  both.2 

V.  The  Prarthanas  Somajes  (Associations  for  Prayer)  of  Eastern 
India.  These  are,  generally  speaking,  congregations  which,  while 
they  wholly  reject  the  authority  of  the  Vedas,  display  a  conservative 
tendency  both  as  to  doctrines  and  ceremonies.  The  chief  of  them, 
the  Prarthana.  Somaj  of  Bombay,  has  even  inscribed  over  the  door  of 
its  place  of  worship,  the  celebrated  motto  of  the  Vedantine  Pan- 
theism :  Ekam  era  advitijam  (a  single  Being  without  a  second.)3 
The  same  state  of  things  is  to  be  met  with  in  some  of  the  Somajes 
of  the  South,  as  for  example  at  Madras,  where  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of 
Southern  India,  while  treating  Brahmoism  as  a  simple  form  of 
universal  religion,  yet  considers  it  to  be  the  logical  development  of 
Hinduism,  and  chooses  its  devotional  readings  exclusively  from  the 
Hindu  Scriptures.4 

Finally,  these  173  associations  form  so  many  centres  for  the  spiritual 

1.  The  first  volume,  which  is  the  only  one  that  has  yet  appeared,  is  in  8vo.,  and 
consists  of  816  pages. 

2.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1880,  page  120. 

3.  Monier  Williams,  Hinduism,  page  150. 

4.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  1882,  page  56. 


294  BRAHMOISM    AND  THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF  INDIA. 

regeneration  of  India,  and  though  they  may  differ  as  to  questions  of 
form  and  method,  and  even  of  principle,  they  none  the  less  represent, 
as  a  whole,  the  power  of  religious  Rationalism  among  the  Hindus.1 

Still,  Brahmoism  does  not  figure  as  the  only  agency  of  reform  which 
is  exciting  the  attention  of  the  populations  of  Hindustan.  "  Ramifica- 
tions of  this  sect  and  kindred  sects  moving  in  a  parallel  direction," 
recently  wrote  Sir  Richard  Temple,  "  have  spread  through  the  three 
Presidencies  of  Bengal,  Madras  and  Bombay."2 

In  addition  to  the  groups  which  have  taken  up  a  Rationalistic 
stand-point,  there  have  been  formed  in  several  localities,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  Punjaub,  what  are  called  Arya  Somajes,  whose  members 
have  adhered  to  that  phase  of  Vedaic  infallibility,  which  was  given  up 

I.  It  may  be  well  to  note  here  one  or  two  points,  which  will  bring  the  history  of 
the  Brahmo  movement  down  to  a  later  date  than  that  referred  to  in  the  text.  To 
begin  with  the  New  Dispensation  Church  at  Calcutta :  After  the  death  of  Chunder 
Sen,  a  schism  took  place  among  his  immediate  followers,  owing  to  the  determined 
opposition  of  the  majority  of  his  missionaries  to  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar's  de- 
sire to  occupy  the  deceased  minister's  pulpit.  Three  of  these  missionaries  and  the 
majority  of  the  congregation  sided  with  him,  but  the  opposition  party  prevailed  and, 
after  more  than  a  year's  interval,  a  compromise  was  arrived  at  which  was,  in  reality, 
destructive  of  Mozoumdar's  claim,  the  pulpit  being  left  vacant  in  memory  of  Keshub. 

Happily  a  feeling  of  reconciliation  between  the  different  sections  of  the 
Brahmo  Church  is  manifesting  itself.  It  may  be  mentioned  in  illustration  of  this, 
that  Mozoumdar  has  advanced  nearer  to  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  and  even  took  part 
in  their  anniversary  services  last  January  (1885)  for  the  first  time.  There  has  been, 
indeed,  as  I  learn  from  Miss  Collet,  a  gradual  tendency  during  the  last  two  or  three 
years  towards  the  healing  of  the  divisions  caused  by  the  Couch- Behar  and  New 
Dispensation  schism.  At  Lahore  and  Madras,  for  instance,  the  two  severed 
Somajes  have  been  re-united,  while  in  several  other  towns  where  the  rival  Somajes 
have  not  officially  coalesced,  the  feeling  between  them  has  become  far  more  friendly. 
This  desirable  change  would  seem  to  be  in  some  measure  the  result  of  Chunder 
Sen's  death,  for  he  forbade  his  missionaries  to  preach  at  Somajes  which  had  pro- 
tested against  his  New  Dispensation — a  prohibition  which  has  since  been  relaxed. 

At  present  the  state  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  generally  is  fairly  prosperous,  and 
the  Sadharan  Somaj  is  doing  extremely  well.  The  number  of  registered  members 
belonging  to  the  latter  in  January,  1885,  was  829,  while  the  aggregate  number  of 
Brahmos  belonging  to  the  different  sections  of  the  Church  is  estimated  at  about 
4,000.  These  belong  to  or  form  over  190  different  Somajes  in  various  parts  of 
India.  Over  forty  journals  are  now  edited  by  Brahmos,  and  are,  more  or  less, 
devoted  to  the  advocacy  of  their  principles.  Hence,  though  the  number  of  avowed 
adherents  of  the  Brahmo  Church  may  seem  small  in  comparison  with  the  vast  popu- 
lation of  India,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  many  a  Somaj  is  a  centre  of  life  and 
light  in  its  own  locality,  so  that  the  magnitude  of  the  movement  is  not  to  be 
estimated  by  mere  statistics.  Besides,  there  is  evidently  a  strong  under-current  of 
interest  flowing  on  in  the  minds  of  many  unavowed  adherents.  Signs  of  this  have 
been  frequent  in  the  history  of  the  movement,  and  they  were  not  lacking  at  the 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF  INDIA.  295 

more  than  thirty-five  years  ago  by  Debendra  Nath  Tagore  and  the 

Adi  Somaj.     These  associations,  which  claim  to  occupy  the  platform 

of  Revelation  while  they  reject  Polytheism,  are  due  to  the  initiative 

of  a  Brahman  of  the  Guzerat,  Dayananda  Sarasvati  Sivami,  who  for 

several  years  travelled  through  India  from  North  to  South  and  preached 

a  purely  spiritual  worship,  founded  on  the  existence  of  one  God,  the 

maintenance  of  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  and  the  infallibility 

of  the  four  Vedas.3    Mr.  H.  G.  Keene  stated,  in  an  article  in  The 

Calcutta  Review  of  April,  1879,  that  the  Arya  Somaj  was  gradually 

extending  in  India  and  had  connected  itself  with  a  Theosophic  Society 

imported  from  the  United  States. 

There  exists  at  New  York,  an  association  which,  under  the  title  of 

The  Theosophical  Society,  claims  to  be  in  possession  of  profound 

meetings  held  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  year  (1885)  to  celebrate  the  fifty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  Somaj.  Speaking  of  the  meetings  in  question, 
the  Indian  Messenger  of  February  1st  says  : — "  By  the  grace  of  God,  the  fifty-fifth 
annual  festival  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  has  passed  off  very  successfully.  These  are 
occasions  when  we  feel  ourselves  specially  drawn  towards  God.  Every  soul  turns 
to  Him  with  great  expectancy.  Friends  meet  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
forgetting  all  the  littlenesses  of  life,  join  soul  to  soul  in  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to 
their  common  Father.  "What  a  beautiful  sight  is  this,  of  hundreds  of  men  and 
women  gathering  at  a  common  spiritual  feast !  Yes,  it  has  been  a  veritable 
spiritual  feast  to  us,  and  the  Bread  and  Water  of  Life  have  been  freely  served  by 
the  All-holy  Spirit.  A  blessed  spirit  of  unity  and  brotherly  sympathy  pervaded 
the  whole  proceedings,  and  made  them  really  sweet  to  the  soul.  We  felt  our  hard 
hearts  melting  under  the  inspiration  of  the  living  God ;  and  young  and  old,  men 
and  women,  all  felt  themselves  embraced  within  the  loving  arms  of  God." 

At  one  of  the  meetings  on  this  occasion  a  lecture  was  delivered  by  the  pandit 
Sivanath  Sastri,  on  "The  New  Life  and  its  New  Responsibilities,"  of  which  the 
journal  just  mentioned  contains  the  following  very  interesting  summary: — "The 
lecturer  tried  to  show  that  the  contact  of  the  East  and  the  West  had  given  birth  to 
a  new  life,  and  had  called  into  existence  new  forces,  many  of  which  had  been 
dormant  in  the  race,  and  some  of  which  had  been  altogether  absent  from  the  con- 
stitution of  the  national  mind.  Under  the  operation  of  the  new  spirit,  time- 
honoured  customs  and  institutions  were  fast  dissolving,  and  a  rapid  process  of 
disintegration  was  visible  on  all  sides.  The  new  spirit  had  brought  on  many 
changes.  Not  the  least — perhaps  the  most  serious — of  them  was  the  decay  of  the 
natural  spirituality  of  the  race.  Our  educated  young  men  were  becoming  secularized 
in  their  sympathies  and  tendencies.  They  were  fast  losing  the  old  religious  in- 
stincts and  traditions  of  their  forefathers.  This  secularization  of  thought,  the 
lecturer  said,  was  something  appalling  in  its  consequences.  No  one  knew 
whither  the  rising  generation  of  the  educated  Indians  was  drifting.  The  Brahmo 
Somaj  was  doing  its  best  to  foster  the  new  spirit,  to  help  in  the  development  of 
the  spirit  of  liberty  which,  like  a  solvent,  was  slowly  doing  the  work  of  destruction 
in  the  mass  of  old  customs  and  usages.  Consequently  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Somaj  to  infuse  spirituality  into  the  minds  of  the  people,  which  alone  could  safely 
conduct  liberty   to  a  happy   and    successful   issue.      Liberty   without  moral  self- 


296  BRAHMOISM   AND  THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

knowledge  preserved  from  ancient  times  in  certain  colleges  of  Tibet. 
The  "  brothers,"  as  the  initiated  are  called,  state  their  object  to  be  as 
follows  :  (i)  The  establishment  of  a  universal  fraternity ;  (2)  the  study 
of  ancient  language,  science,  and  religion  ;  (3)  the  investigation  of  the 
hidden  mysteries  of  nature,  as  well  as  the  psychic  forces  latent  in 
man.  The  first  and  second  of  these  objects  form  esoteric  theosophy, 
the  third  constitutes  its  exoteric  form.  As  regards  religion,  they  reject 
the  doctrine  of  a  Personal  God,  declare  that  men  ought  to  consider 
themselves  but  a  transient  effect  of  a  self-existent,  universal,  and 
infinite  Cause,  abandon  the  supernatural,  and  take  their  stand  on 
the  ground  of  pure  science.  But,  at  the  same  time,  they  admit  that 
together  with  the  facts  established  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  obser- 
vation and  induction,  there  exist  phenomena  and  occult  laws,  the 
knowledge  of  which  is  only  to  be  obtained  by  a  certain  exercise  of  the 
will,  with  contemplation,  abstraction,  fasting  and  eastacy.4 

This  doctrine  seems  to  be  rather  Hindu  than  American.  Hence 
there  is  no  room  for  surprise  that  it  should  have  met  with  marks  of 
favour  among  the  adherents  of  Vedantism,  when  in  1879  the  Theo- 
sophic  Society  of  the  United  States  sent  four  of  its  members  to  India, 
among  whom  were  Colonel  H.  Olcott  and  the  Countess  Blavatsky.5 

control  and  without  the  operation  of  the  nobler  moral  and  spiritual  impulses  of 
the  soul,  runs  to  license.  But  real  moral  self-control  springs  from  deep  spiritual 
convictions.  Hence  spirituality  is  the  real  legitimate  guide  of  liberty.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  to  develop  this  guiding  principle." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  statements  and  extracts  that  the  great  work 
of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  is  still  silently  but  surely  progressing  as  a  harmonizing  and 
regenerative  influence  in  the  midst  of  the  complex  forms  of  Hindu  civilization,  and 
that  it  is  at  least  preparing  the  way  for  that  new  form  of  faith  which  will  ultimately 
take  the  place  of  the  ancient  beliefs  and  superstitions  of  the  country. —  Translator, 

2.  "  Political  Effect  of  Religious  Thought  in  India,"  in  The  Fortnightly  Review 
of  January,  1883. 

3.  Monier  Williams,  Hinduism,  page  150;  Garcin  de  Tassy,  Revue  de  la 
Litterature  Hindoustanie,  1876,  page  92,  and  1877,  page  91. — The  Arya  Somaj 
of  Lahore,  710  members  in  1878  (  Theistic  Annual  {ox  1878^. 

4.  Hints  on  Exoteric  Theosophy.  Calcutta,  18S2.  The  Theosophical Society  and 
its  Founders.  Bombay,  1882.  See  also  W.  C.  Fink,  Theosophy,  Exoteric  and 
Esoteric,  in  The.  Calcutta  Review  of  April,  1883. 

5.  A  notice  of  a  work  by  this  lady,  Isis  Devoilce,  which  must  have  been  published 
at  New  York,  informs  us  that  the  authoress,  who  was  born  in  Asia,  passed  her 
childhood  among  the  Kalmucks,  Tartars,  Persians,  and  other  Oriental  peoples,  and 
her  ripe  age  with  the  Hindus,  the  Tibetans,  the  Cingalese,  and  the  Egyptians,  and 
that  she  had  thus  an  opportunity  of  studying  the  languages,  literatures,  traditions 
and  mythologies  of  Oriental  peoples. — Vide  La  Revue  Politique  et  Litteraire  of  the 
24th  of  November,  1877. 


BRAHMOISM   AND  THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF    INDIA.  297 

These  "  missionaries"  had  assigned  to  themselves  the  task  of  preaching 
"  the  majesty  and  glory  of  all  the  ancient  religions,"  as  well  as  that  of 
warning  the  Hindu,  the  Cingalese,  and  the  Parsi  against  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  new  faith  for  the  teachings  of  the  Vedas,  the  Tri-Pitaka  and 
the  Zend  Avesta.  Their  activity  was  not  restricted  to  India  proper, 
and  impartial  observers  state  that  in  the  island  of  Ceylon  they  brought 
back  to  Buddhism  thousands  of  natives  who  had  been  converted  to 
Christianity.1  The  Theosophical  Society  of  India  takes  the  lead  in 
this  propagandism  to-day,  and  its  organ  is  The  Theosophist,  which  is 
published  in  Madras. 

It  is  quite  possible  there  are  further  movements  which  might  be 
described,  not  only  in  Hinduism  but  also  in  the  other  faiths  of  India. 
There  have  been  formed,  for  instance,  at  several  places  and  above  all 
among  the  Brahmans,  societies  called  Dharma  Sadhas  (Associations 
of  the  Law),  whose  object  is  a  return  to  the  ritual  and  traditions  of 
the  Vedas.  This  has  the  appearance  of  an  orthodox  revival ;  but  in 
point  of  fact  these  organizations,  as  Mr.  Barth  shows,  are  the  result 
of  the  critical  spirit,  and  their  aim  is  to  develop  sciences  which  tend 
to  destroy  superstition.2  As  much  may  be  said  of  the  Anjumans, 
semi-literary  and  semi-religious  societies,  which  have  been  established 
among  the  Mussulman  population  of  India,  for  the  spread  of  literary 
and  artistic  tastes,  the  cultivation  of  poetry  and  the  study  of  the 
sciences  which  relate  to  religion. 

Together  with  every  other  section  of  the  community,  even  the 
non-Aryan  and  as  yet  but  half  civilized  populations,  are  being  roused 
by  the  need  for  religious  reform.  Thus,  while  one  portion  of  them 
are  gradually  abandoning  their  Fetishistic  beliefs  to  accept  Islamism, 
Catholicism  or  Hinduism,  there  has  been  recently  seen  to  spring  up 

1.  Fifty-eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association, 
London,  1883  ;  page  48. — The  Buddhist  section  of  the  Theosophist  Society  has 
recently  published  a  Buddhist  Catechism  for  the  use  of  the  Cingalese,  with  a  preface 
by  Colonel  Olcott,  who  says  :  "There  are  abundant  reasons  to  believe  that  of  all 
the  great  religions  of  the  world  Buddhism  is  destined  to  be  the  religion  which  will 
be  spoken  of  most  in  the  future,  and  which  will  be  found  to  present  the  least 
antagonism  to  nature  and  law.  AVho  would  venture  to  affirm  that  Buddhism  will 
not  be  the  religion  of  the  world's  ultimate  choice  ?"  This  Catechism,  which  is  written 
in  Cingalese  and  English,  is  invested  with  the  approbation  of  the  High  Priest  of 
Sripada.     (Revue  de  VHistoire  des  Religions.      Tome  VIII.     No.  1.     1&83.) 

2.  A.  Barth,  Op.  Cit.,  page  62. 


298  BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

among  the  Bhils,  a  tribe  of  the  Vindhyas  mountains,  a  guru  named 
Jurgi,  who  is  preaching  the  existence  of  but  one  God,  forbidding  the 
use  of  strong  drinks  and  condemning  the  destruction  of  any  living 
creature.1 

What  will  be  the  result  of  this  fermentation  of  ideas?  Hindu 
Polytheism,  though  still  numbering  two  hundred  millions  of  adherents, 
presents  unquestionable  signs  of  decay.  It  is  possible,  and  even 
probable,  that  its  death  agony  will  be  of  long  duration ;  but  its  days 
are  none  the  less  numbered  by  the  progress  of  civilization.  The 
moment  will  come  therefore  when  we  shall  have  to  face  this  question, 
which  M.  Barth  asked  without  attempting  to  answer  it :  "  What  will 
be  the  faith  of  India  when  its  old  religions,  which  are  already  con- 
demned to  perish  but  tenaciously  cling  to  life,  have  been  finally  swept 
away  ?"2 

Here  we  must  avoid  a  tendency  which  is  nowhere  more  calculated 
to  vitiate  any  estimate  we  may  form  of  the  future.  I  refer  to  the 
unfortunate  habit  which  so  often  leads  us  to  reason  from  the  particular 
to  the  general.  Thus,  because  a  native  of  ability — Dwarka  Nath 
Mitter — had  devoted  speech  and  pen  to  the  service  of  Comtism,  it 
was  hastily  predicted  that  India  was  about  to  pass  at  a  bound  from 
idolatry  to  the  religion  of  Comte.3  In  the  same  way,  English  Secularists 
are  apt  to  imagine  that  India  will  be  an  early  conquest  to  their  opin- 
ions, simply  because  there  exists  at  Madras  a  small  group  of  native 
Free-thinkers,  which  is  affiliated  to  the  National  Secular  Society.  And 
finally,  every  time  any  Christian  Church  succeeds  in  making  a  few 
converts  of  higher  social  standing  than  usual,  it  is  contended  that 
India  is  on  the  eve  of  embracing  that  form  of  Christianity,  be  it 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  which  the  converts  have  adopted. 

It  is  clear  that  the  various  forms  of  Christianity — and  even  Comtism 
and  Secularism — are  influencing,  and  will  continue  to  influence,  the 

1.  Garcin  de  Tassy,  Revue  de  la  Litterature  Hindoustanie,  1876,  page  92. 

2.  A.  Barth,  Op.  Cit.,  page  175. 

3.  Dwarka  Nath  Mitter  died  near  Calcutta  in  1874.  The  Positivist  Church  of 
London  erected  a  tablet  to  his  memory,  with  the  following  inscription  : — 

"  Dwarka    Nath    Mitter, 

1832—1874, 

Principilo  della  Santa  Milizia 

Nell  Oriente." 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF    INDIA.  299 

religious  evolution  of  the  Hindu  mind;  but  it  is  hardly  likely  that 
this  evolution  will  borrow  from  any  one  of  these  factors  its  general 
and  ultimate  form. 

The  introduction  of  European  ideas,  by  overthrowing  the  ancient 
beliefs  of  India,  has  produced,  in  more  than  one  instance,  compara- 
tive religious  indifference,  and  specially  among  the  literary  classes. 
In  some  cases,  the  result  is  a  disdain  of  the  ideal  and  an  exclusive 
search  for  material  enjoyment,  which  finds  its  earlier  expression  in  the 
materialistic  philosophy  of  the  Carvakas.1  On  the  other  hand,  India 
has  always  had  a  weakness  for  theories  of  universal  illusion — the 
Maya — which  are  to  be  met  with  at  the  heart  of  Atheistic  as  well  as 
Pantheistic  conceptions  of  the  world.  Hume  himself  and  his  exist- 
ing disciples  do  not  go  so  far  in  their  philosophic  nihilism  as  the 
author  of  the  Byom  Sar  and  of  the  Souni  Sar,  the  contemporary 
poet  Bhaktawar.  We  read  in  the  first  of  these  compositions  :  "  From 
nothing  all  things  are  born ;  in  nothing  all  things  perish.  Even  the 
illimitable  expanse  of  sky  is  all  hollowness.  What  alone  has  no 
beginning,  nor  will  ever  have  an  end,  and  is  still  of  one  character, 
that  is  vacuum."  The  Sonrni  Sar  is  still  more  explicit :  "  All  that  is 
seen  is  nothing,  and  is  not  really  seen.  Lord  or  no  Lord,  it  is  all  one. 
Maya  is  nothing ;  Brahm  is  nothing.  All  is  false  and  delusive.  .  .  . 
The  teacher  is  nothing;  the  disciple  nothing;  the  ego  and  the  non-ego 
are  alike  nothing.  The  Temple  and  the  God  are  nought;  nought  is 
the  worship  of  nought,  and  nought  the  prayer  addressed  to  nought."2 

The  majority,  however,  of  the  educated  classes  have  remained  pro- 
foundly religious  at  heart  and  in  the  tone  of  their  thought.  What  has 
been  said  of  the  Germans  may  be  said  of  the  Hindus:  that  even  when 
they  profess  to  be  Materialists  or  Atheists,  they  still  remain  Meta- 
physicians, Idealists,  or,  in  some  measure,  Mystics.  Those  who, 
fascinated  by  European  science,  profess  to  accept  one  of  the  systems 
of  thought  at  present  in  vogue  among  us,  seem  to  be  specially  influ- 
enced by  the  synthetic  aspect  of  its  doctrines.  Even  the  Vedantine 
school  appears  to  have  been  endowed  with  new  life  from  its  contact 
with  European  culture,3  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not 

1.  Monier  Williams,  Hinduism,  page  225. 

2.  F.  S.  Growse,  Mathura,  a  District  Memoir.     Agra,  1874,  part  1.,  page  19. 

3.  See  an  interesting  defence  of  the  Vedantine  philosophy,  published  by  Prof. 
Pramada  Dasa  Mittra,  in  the  10th  volume  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  1878. 


300  BRAHMOISM   AND  THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

completely  emancipate  itself  from  popular  superstitions  without  losing 
any  of  its  religious  aspirations  or  even  of  its  mystic  tendencies. 

It  may  be  asked,  therefore,  whether  the  Hindus  will  not  confine 
themselves  to  replacing  their  ancient  faith  by  one  or  other  of  the 
religions  which  at  present  exist  in  India.  Let  us  consider,  then,  the 
relative  importance  of  these  creeds  and  their  chances  of  predominance 
in  the  future.1 

The  Parsees  constitute  too  small  a  group  for  comparison  in  a  con- 
sideration of  this  kind.  Besides,  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  which  is 
perhaps  the  oldest  in  the  world,  shows  no  signs  of  proselytism.  The 
Sikhs,  again,  are  little  more  than  a  sect  of  Hinduism.  As  to  the 
Buddhists,  who  also  form  to-day  but  a  very  small  minority  of  the 
Hindu  population,  they  could  only  regain  an  ascendancy  by  comply- 
ing with  a  two-fold  condition  :  on  the  one  hand,  a  radical  reform  of 
the  Buddhist  Church;  on  the  other,  a  general  development  of  Pessimist 
tendencies,  of  which  there  are  no  signs  at  present. — There  remain  the 
religions  of  the  Koran  and  the  Bible. 

Islamism  numbers  fifty  millions  of  adherents  in  British  India, 
which  has  led  to  the  statement  that  England  is  the  first  Mussulman 
power  in  the  world.  As  the  reader  may  be  aware,  the  followers  of 
Mohammed  are  divisible  to-day  into  three  great  sects :  the  Sunnites, 
by  far  the  most  numerous  who  render  allegiance  to  the  spiritual 
authority  of  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople ;  the  Shiites  or  partisans  of 
Ali,  who  specially  predominate  in  Persia ;  and  the  Wahabis  of  recent 
origin,  whose  principal  centre  is  in  Arabia.  These  sects  hold  in  com- 
mon :  (i)  The  belief  in  One  God,  the  Creator  and  Sustainer  of  the 
Universe;  (2)  the  belief  in  a  future  life  in  which  the  good  will  be 
rewarded  and  the  wicked  punished;   (3)  the  doctrine  of  a  Divine 

1.  Here  are,  as  regards  religion,  the  results  of  the  Decennial  Census  taken  in 
British  India  on  the  17th  of  February,  1881,  the  Independent  States  being  excluded 
from  the  computation  : — 

Hindus  (believers  in  Hinduism)  ...         ...         ...     187,937,450 

Mohammedans  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       50,121,585 

Buddhists  3,418,884 

Christians  (including  foreigners)         ...         ...         ...         1,862,634 

Sikhs       853,426 

Fetishists  6,426,511 

Other  faiths,  or  those  without  any  specified  religion...        4,279,026 

Total         ...     254,899,516 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF   INDIA.  301 

Revelation  by  the  intervention  of  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  last  place 
of  Mohammed — a  Revelation,  indeed,  which  relates  not  only  to 
spiritual  matters  but  to  all  the  forms  of  human  activity ;  (4)  the  con- 
viction that  the  Koran  is  the  literal  Word  of  God. 

The  Sunnites  go  so  far  as  to  extend  the  gift  of  inspiration  to  the 
first  Caliphs  and  to  the  principal  doctors  of  Islam  ;  thus  they  consider 
themselves  pre-eminently  orthodox ;  they  possess,  however,  a  liberal 
school,  the  Shafites,  who  admit  the  possibility  of  religious  progress, 
and  profess,  with  regard  to  unbelievers,  a  toleration  based  upon 
universal  morality.  The  Shiites  refuse  all  special  authority  to  the 
decisions  of  the  Caliphs  who  succeeded  Mohammed ;  they  proclaim 
the  rights  of  individual  interpretation  with  regard  to  the  text  of  the 
Koran  ;  but  they  seem  less  strictly  attached  to  Monotheism,  inasmuch 
as  they  believe  in  the  personification  of  the  twelve  principal  divine 
attributes,  and  count  on  the  advent  of  the  Messiah.  It  is  from  their 
ranks  that  the  Sofis  of  Persia  have  sprung,  whose  Mystico-Pantheistic 
doctrine  is  not  without  resemblance  to  the  Vedantine  Philosophy. 
The  Wahabis,  who  have  been  called,  and  not  improperly,  the 
Puritans  of  Islamism,  accord  authority  to  nothing  beyond  the  Koran 
and  the  utterances  of  the  Prophets ;  they  condemn  pilgrimages  as 
well  as  the  worship  of  saints  and  holy  relics ;  and  their  ideal  is  the 
return  of  the  Islamic  world  to  the  position  it  occupied  at  the  death 
of  Mohammed. 

India  scarcely  contains  more  than  five  millions  of  Shiites.  As  to 
the  Wahabis,  however  small  their  numbers,  they  have  had  more  than 
once  to  endure  the  rigours  of  the  English  Government  in  consequence 
of  their  fanaticism.  Speaking  generally,  the  Islamism  of  the  lower 
classes  is  more  or  less  imbued  with  Hindu  superstitions ;  among  the 
educated  Mussulmans,  on  the  other  hand,  a  certain  spirit  of  liberal- 
ism prevails,  and  this  has  powerfully  contributed  to  the  development 
of  the  Anjumans.  Not  only  is  there  to  be  found  among  these  a  most 
decided  taste  for  the  study  of  the  sciences,  but  also  a  sincere  desire 
to  purify  the  religion  of  Mohammed  by  freeing  it  from  its  parasitical 
excrescences,  with  a  certain  religious  eclecticism,  kept,  it  is  true, 
within  the  limits  of  the  sects  of  Islam.  In  1877,  for  instance,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  Indian  Mussulmans,  Said  Ahmed  Khan,  a 
former  judge  at  Benares,  founded  at  Aligurth,  a  large  Oriental 
college  for   both  Shiites   and  Sunnites.     He  was  followed  in  this 


302  BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

course  by  the  lamented  Salar  Yung,  the  Nizam's  Minister,  who 
did  so  much  for  the  moral  and  material  well-being  of  the  kingdom 
of  Hyderabad.1 

It  is  difficult  to  foresee  where  this  movement  of  intellectual  emanci- 
pation will  end.  Islamism  has  to  take  but  a  single  step  to  find  itself 
in  full  sympathy  with  the  Rationalistic  Monotheism  of  the  West. 
But  it  could  not  make  this  advance,  which  consists  in  the  rejection  of 
the  supernatural  origin  of  the  Koran,  without  losing  its  distinctive 
characteristic,  and  so  long  as  it  abstains  from  taking  this  step  forward, 
neither  persuasion  nor  force  will  gain  an  acceptance  for  it  among  the 
masses  of  the  Hindu  people — even  though  we  should  be  called  upon 
to  witness  the  restoration  of  a  vast  Mussulman  power  in  India,  as 
Mr.  W.  S.  Blunt  predicts.2 

Will  Christianity  be  more  fortunate?  If  Christian  missionaries  were 
not  addicted  to  hope  against  all  hope,  they  would  have  been  long  since 
discouraged  at  the  uselessness  of  a  propagandism  which,  after  immense 
sacrifices  and  the  constant  efforts  of  half  a  century,  has  merely  resulted 
in  the  conversion  of  a  few  hundred  thousand  natives  out  of  a  popu- 
lation of  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions.  This  unsatisfactory  state  of 
things  is  admitted  by  the  Anglican  Bishops  of  India,  in  their  collective 
letter  to  the  English  Clergy,  of  May,  1874.  "There  is  nothing,"  said 
they,  "  that  can  at  all  warrant  the  opinion  that  the  heart  of  the  people 
has  been  largely  touched,  or  that  the  conscience  of  the  people  has 
been  affected  seriously.  There  is  no  advance  in  the  direction  of  faith 
in  Christ ;     .     .     .     the  condition  is  one  rather  of  stagnation." 

This  avowal  should  not  surprise  us.  When  the  missionaries  begin 
to  teach  the  Hindus  the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  or  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity,  they  either  have  to  address 
themselves  to  the  Orthodox,  who,  possessing  analogous  dogmas  in 
their  own  theology,  see  no  reason  for  exchanging  them  for  beliefs 
which  are  more  unfamiliar  to  their  race,  without  being  more  in  har- 
mony with  their  reason ;  or  else  they  have  to  deal  with  Rationalists, 
who,  having  outgrown  the  traditions  of  Hinduism  by  means  of  free 
inquiry,  are  anything  but  disposed  to  subject  themselves  to  the  yoke 
of  a  new  Revelation.     Thus  Ram  Mohun  Roy  said  that,  after  giving 

1.  Garcin  de  Tassy,  Revue  de  la  Litterature  Hindoustanie,  Annce  iSjj. 

2.  W.  S.  Blunt,  The  Future  of  Islam.     London,  Kegan  Paul,  1882. 


BRAHMOISM   AND  THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE    OF   INDIA.  303 

up  the  belief  in  a  plurality  of  Gods  or  Divine  Persons,  which  is  held 
by  several  sections  of  Hinduism,  he  could  not  conscientiously  and 
logically  adopt  an  analogous  system,  however  purified  it  might  be. 

According  to  writers  like  Monier  Williams  and  Garcin  de  Tassy, 
Indian  missionaries,  in  order  to  be  successful,  should  be  drawn  from 
that  enlightened  section  of  the  clergy  who  possess  a  complete  know- 
ledge of  the  religions  which  they  are  called  upon  to  oppose.  But  it 
is  just  here  that  the  difficulty  lies,  for  the  moment  the  missionary 
acquires  a  taste  for  the  study  of  comparative  theology,  it  is  no  longer, 
in  his  eyes,  mere  Pagan  superstition  which  he  subjects  to  the  criterium 
of  scientific  methods,  and  the  end  is  that  he  who  went  out  to  convert 
others,  returns  converted  himself.  As  illustrations  of  this,  take  the 
career  of  Mr.  F.  W.  Newman  in  Syria,  that  of  Bishop  Colenzo  among 
the  Caffirs,  and  that  of  the  Rev.  —  Adams  in  India,  to  mention  merely 
the  most  noted  cases.  The  only  form  of  Christianity  which  succeeds 
in  impressing  the  Hindu  is  its  moral  and  humanitarian  side.  But 
Christianity,  reduced  to  this  element,  is  scarcely  represented  by  any 
but  the  modern  Unitarians— that  is  to  say,  by  Brahmoism  with  an 
English  name. 

In  perusing  the  extracts  I  have  given  in  the  course  of  this  work, 
the  reader  must  have  been  struck  by  the  resemblance  between  Brah- 
moism and  liberal  Christianity,  both  in  doctrine  and  history.  Certain 
views  of  truth  which  are  expressed  every  day  in  Unitarian  pulpits  and 
in  the  works  of  liberal  Protestants,  might  be  met  with  in  the  utterances 
of  Brahmoists — just  as  passages  are  to  be  found  in  the  publications  of 
the  Brahmo  Somaj  which  would  do  honour  to  the  pen  of  a  Channing 
or  a  Parker.  When  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  and,  at  a  later  time, 
Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar,  preached  in  certain  Unitarian  churches 
of  Great  Britain,  their  hearers,  as  one  of  them  told  me  himself,  might 
have  easily  imagined  themselves  listening  to  their  customary  ministers, 
who  had  become  slightly  Orientalized  in  manner  and  expression  by  a 
long  residence  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  Doubtless,  there  is 
something  both  impressive  and  remarkable  in  this  contact  of  two 
currents  of  religious  thought  which,  having  originated  in  Central 
Asia  and  moved  in  opposite  directions  with  the  Aryan  migrations 
five  or  six  thousand  years  ago,  are  thus  meeting  on  the  common 
ground  of  an  eclectic  and  rational  faith  as  the  result  of  a  like  evo- 


304  BRAHMOISM   AND   THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF  INDIA. 

lution.     Still,  if  this  synthetic  faith  is  to  spread  in  India,  will  it  not 
be  in  its  native  form  and  with  its  national  badge  ? 

Brahmoism  has  retained  the  elements  which  are  indispensable  for 
satisfying  the  traditional  exigencies  and  the  characteristic  concep- 
tions of  the  Hindu  genius.  I  shall  restrict  myself  to  mentioning,  on 
this  head,  the  importance  which  it  attaches  to  the  divine  immanence, 
to  a  recognition  of  the  claims  of  duty  towards  all  living  creatures,  to 
the  conviction  that  the  struggle  for  truth  and  justice  is  continued  after 
death,  and  finally  to  the  influence  of  an  element  of  the  religious  life 
which  has  almost  fallen  to  a  minimum  in  our  Western  civilization  : 
the  love  of  God. 

Whether  it  be  a  question  of  the  Adi  Somaj,  the  Sadharan  Somaj, 
or  of  the  New  Dispensation,  there  is  unanimity  of  opinion  on  this 
last  point.  Here  is  a  passage  from  a  somewhat  interesting  pamphlet 
dedicated  to  the  English  Unitarians  by  the  existing  President  of  the 
Adi  Somaj,  Raj  Narain  Bose,  "  in  the  hope  of  aiding  them  in  some 
measure,  to  give  to  their  Church  a  tone  more  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  Theism  :" 

"  If  I  were  to  describe  Theism  in  one  word,  it  would  be  the  word 
love.  Theism  can  be  divided  into — firstly,  a  belief  in  the  love  of 
God  to  his  creatures ;  secondly,  our  love  of  God ;  thirdly,  doing  the 
work  he  loves.  It  was  love  that  created  the  world.  God  wanted  to 
diffuse  happiness  to  other  beings  and  he  created  the  world.  It  is  God's 
love  that  still  preserves  the  world.  It  is  love  of  God  to  man  that 
makes  him  take  personal  interest  in  him.  It  is  love  of  God  to  man 
that  entitles  him  to  the  appellations  of  Father  and  Friend.  It  is  the 
love  of  God  to  man  that  makes  him  near  and  easily  accessible  to 
man.  It  is  the  love  of  God  to  man  that  leads  him  to  grant  prayers 
and  reveal  religious  truth  to  him.  It  is  the  love  of  God  to  man  that 
leads  him  to  promote  the  progress  of  his  soul  in  a  future  state.  It  is 
an  instinctive  love  of  God  that  first  draws  man  towards  God.  It  is 
like  the  love  of  the  new  born  insect  for  the  honey  in  the  flower, 
which  it  has  not  yet  tasted.  It  is  love  of  God  that  makes  man  per- 
form the  works  which  God  loves.  Morality  is  nothing  but  love. 
What  does  morality  say  ?  Morality  says  love  your  neighbours,  love 
your  country,  love  the  world,  love  the  right.  Love  also  implies 
knowledge.  As  we  cannot  love  a  friend  if  we  do  not  know  his  merits, 
so  if  we  do  not  know  the  perfections  of  God,  which  constitute  his 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF   INDIA.  305 

lovliness,  how  can  we  love  him  ?  If  we  do  not  know  what  is  right, 
how  can  we  love  the  right?  All  religion,  therefore,  is  included  in 
the  word  love.  What  is  leading  a  religious  life,  but  leading  a  life  of 
love,  thinking  love,  speaking  love,  diffusing  an  atmosphere  of  love 
around  us?"1 

The  Constitution  of  the  Prarthana  Somaj  of  Surat  declares  that 
religion  consists  of  devotion  (bhakh),  in  union  with  morality  (niti) 
and  love  (prem).  It  adds,  moreover,  that  devotion  is  a  combination 
of  faith  (erdddhd),  contemplation  (prdsand),  and  virtuous  conduct 
(saddchdr).2 

Even  the  Sadharan  Somaj,  though  due  to  a  re-action  against  the 
mystical  excesses  of  Keshub,  asserts  that  "the  way  to  salvation  is  not 
through  Pantheism,  which  regards  sin  and  misery  as  delusions ;  not 
through  Asceticism,  which  aspires  to  uproot  the  desires  and  subjugate 
the  body ;  but  through  love,  which  teaches  the  soul  to  seek  the  will 
of  the  Father  as  the  highest  good."3 

The  entire  history  of  the  Hindu  people  bears  witness  to  their  invin- 
cible repugnance  to  every  form  of  faith  which  is  not  based  upon  an 
exalted  sentiment  of  Divine  love  and  upon  the  possibility  of  attaining 
to  an  intimate  communion  with  God:  in  other  words,  upon  the  b/iakti 
and  the  yoga.  But  if  we  are  to  take  into  account  this  double  tendency 
when  estimating  every  attempt  made  to  transform  the  beliefs  of  India, 
we  must  also  admit  that  the  spirit  of  the  age  lends  itself  to  other 
methods  and  processes,  even  in  the  matter  of  religion  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ganges.  Christianity,  or,  if  the  expression  be  preferred, 
the  influence  of  Christian  civilization,  has  developed  in  India  an 
element  which  Mohammedanism  was  unable  to  create  :  a  need  of 
intellectual  and  moral  activity,  which  has  also  its  religious  side, 
revealing  itself  in  missionary,  moral  and  philanthropic  efforts,  but 
which  readily  comes  into  antagonism  with  the  different  forms  of  con- 
templation and  ecstasy.  The  doctrine  most  fitted  to  reconcile  these 
contradictory  elements  is  assuredly  that  which  would  have  the  best 
chance  of  acceptance  among  the  Hindus. 

1.  Raj  Narain  Bose,  The  Hindu  Theisfs  Brotherly  Gift  to  English  Theists. 
Calcutta,  1881,  page  16. 

2.  Brah wo  Year  Book  for  1882,  page  84. 

3.  Sivanath  Sastri,  The  New  Dispensation  and  the  Sadharan  Brahmo  Somaj, 
page  91.  See  also,  on  the  same  subject,  an  article  of  the  Brahmo  Public  Opinion, 
reproduced  by  Miss  Collet  in  her  Annual  for  1880,  page  92. 

W 


306  BRAHMOISM   AND  THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

This  is  a  truth  which  the  different  sections  of  Brahmoism  have 
recognized,  with  varying  degrees  of  clearness.  "  Communion  (yoga)" 
said  The  Brahmo  Public  Opinion  on  the  26th  of  February,  1880,  in 
an  article  dealing  more  or  less  with  the  New  Dispensation,  "  sharpens 
the  eyesight  of  the  spirit.  Through  it  we  grow  familiar  with  the  veri- 
ties of  the  spiritual  world ;  through  it  objects  of  faith  become  objects 
of  spiritual  perception.  But  communion,  if  practised  as  the  only 
means  of  spiritual  culture,  begets  moral  inanity  and  deadens  the 
active  energies  of  the  soul.  like  communion,  religious  frenzy  (bhakti) 
has  also  its  use  and  its  dangers.  A  state  of  frenzy  can  never  be  the 
normal  condition  of  the  soul.  ...  It  can  be,  and  often  is, 
induced  by  purely  external  and  adventitious  causes.  .  .  .  Besides, 
there  is  not  much  connection  between  such  ecstatic  display  and  real 
excellence  of  character.  In  the  spiritual  culture  of  a  Brahmo,  active 
and  prayerful  work  should  form  the  ground  plan,  the  other  two  sup- 
plementing it  for  perfection."  "The  ultimate  object  of  religion," 
says  another  number  of  the  same  journal  (January  23,  1879),  ls  to 
be  at  one  with  God,  not  only  in  sentiment,  but  in  action,  too.  We 
are  required  not  merely  to  worship,  but  also  to  serve  God.  Love  is 
practical  in  its  nature.  If  genuine,  it  must  come  out  in  action.  Love 
that  is  not  active  is  no  love  at  all." 

It  is  equally  necessary  to  take  into  account  the  changes  which  the 
diffusion  of  Western  scientific  knowledge  will  produce  in  the  Hindu 
mind.  Sir  H.  Sumner  Maine  said  at  the  University  of  Calcutta  in 
1865:  "In  the  fight  which  the  educated  Hindu  and  the  Christian 
missionary  wage  against  error,  such  success  as  has  been  gained,  such 
as  will  be  gained,  evidently  depends  on  physical  knowledge.  .  .  . 
Happily  some  fragment  of  physical  speculation  has  been  built  into 
every  false  system.  Here  is  the  weak  point.  Its  inevitable  destruc- 
tion leaves  a  breach  in  the  whole  fabric,  and  through  that  breach  the 
whole  armies  of  truth  march  in." 

The  different  sections  of  Brahmos  have  already  had  an  opportunity 
of  showing,  by  their  educational  institutions,  how  fully  they  have 
realized  the  necessity  of  founding  the  regeneration  of  Modern  India 
on  the  diffusion  of  scientific  knowledge.  The  cultivation  of  science 
is  placed  by  the  Brahmo  Dharma  in  the  list  of  duties  towards  God, 
and  Keshub  himself  did  not  differ  on  this  subject  from  Parker  and 
Emerson.     "  A  Theist,"  said  he,  "  must  love  science  with  warm  and 


BRAHMOISM   AND  THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF   INDIA.  307 

enthusiastic  love,  for  science  is  God's  Scripture,  written  by  his  own 
hand,  infallible  and  sacred."1 

Up  to  the  present  Brahmoism  has  remained  faithful  to  our  spiritual 
and  transcendental  Theism.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
not,  in  imitation  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  adapt  itself  equally  well  to 
the  ideas  which  tend  to  predominate  in  the  philosophy  of  evolution. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  indeed  that  all  our  present  systems  of  thought 
have  their  equivalents  in  the  ancient  speculations  of  the  Brahmans. 
Before  our  era,  for  instance,  the  Sankhya  school  taught  that  the 
universe  had  arisen  by  a  gradual  evolution,  from  an  incoherent,  inde- 
terminate and  homogenous  substance,  Prakriti,  and  had  differentiated 
and  developed  itself  by  its  own  inherent  forces.  This  system  seems 
to  have  been  at  first  Atheistic  and  Materialistic,  and  therefore  more 
analogous  to  the  doctrine  of  Haeckel  than  to  that  of  Spencer.  But 
the  impossibility  of  explaining  the  transformation  of  matter  into  spirit, 
led  later  advocates  of  this  bold  speculation  to  admit  the  existence  of 
spiritual  energies,  not  to  be  traced  back  to  the  material  manifestations 
of  the  Prakriti,  and  which  had  to  be  conceived  of  as  uniting  with  the 
latter  in  the  evolution  of  the  universe.2  Then  again  the  difficulty  of 
accounting  for  the  relative  and  finite  without  assuming  an  Absolute 
substratum  led  them,  as  it  has  led  the  evolutionists  of  our  epoch,  to 
concede  the  existence  of  the  Unknowable,  the  mysterious  power  from 
which  matter  and  spirit  alike  emanate.  There  is  a  passage  in  the 
Upanishads  which  describes  God  as  unknown  by  those  who  profess 
to  know  him,  and  known  only  by  those  who  put  forward  no  such 
claim.3  A  profound  remark  this,  and  one  which  even  Herbert  Spencer 
himself  would  not  disavow. 

Does  it  follow  that  religion  and  worship  disappear  with  the  possibility 
of  defining  the  Absolute  Being?  The  Brahmos  have  resolved  this 
problem  which  is  occupying  so  much  attention  in  Christian  society, 
and  have  given  it  the  solution  which  tends  to  prevail  in  the  most 

1.  Essays  Theological  and  Ethical,  page  37. 

2.  Sdnkhya  Tatwa  Kanmondi  of  Vachaspati  Misra  commences  with  these 
words:  "The  Pratrika  is  one;  it  is  self-existent  and  in  a  state  of  equilibrium. 
It  is  the  source  and  mother  of  all  life.  Souls  (puroushas)  are  multiple,  uncreated 
and  associated  with  matter ;  after  a  certain  time  they  quit  this  material  envelope 
and  depart." 

3.  It  was  in  order  to  clearly  mark  the  indeterminate  nature  of  the  Absolute 
Being  that  the  Brahmans  used  the  neuter  gender  in  speaking  of  the  Supreme. 


308  BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS   FUTURE   OF   INDIA. 

advanced  liberal  Protestantism :  "  In  our  religious  culture,  said  the 
Brahmo  Public  Opinion  of  the  2nd  of  January,  1879,  we  should  lay 
greater  stress  on  the  spiritual  side  of  it  than  on  the  theological ;  in 
other  words  we  should  distinguish  between  knowing  God  and  loving 
God.  All  our  attempts  to  know  God,  to  divine  and  explain  his 
purposes,  to  fathom  the  depths  of  his  wisdom  and  goodness,  are  vain 
and  fruitless.  But  we  can  always  approach  him  from  the  side  of 
love.  Love  is  life ;  this  is  rigorously  true  for  our  spiritual  life.  It  is, 
moreover,  the  Key  of  Paradise." 

Doubtless,  it  is  impossible  to  state  with  certainty  that  Brahmoism 
under  one  or  other  of  its  forms,  is  destined  to  become  the  future 
religion  of  India,  or  even  that  it  is  the  approaching  faith  of  the  en- 
lightened Hindus,  as  Sir  Richard  Temple,  one  of  those  best  acquainted 
with  the  country,  has  recently  said  of  it.1  But  what  may  be  affirmed, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  is  :  first  that  the  reform  of  Hinduism  will  come,  not 
from  without  but  from  within ;  and  further,  that  of  all  the  religious 
movements  observable  in  India,  Brahmoism  is  the  one  which  seems 
to  most  closely  correspond  with  the  present  direction  of  Hindu 
thought. 

After  having  thus  considered  the  influence  which  European  thought 
has  been  able  to  exert  on  the  beliefs  of  India,  it  would  be  of  interest 
to  inquire,  both  as  regards  the  present  and  the  future,  whether  the 
genius  of  India  is  not  destined,  in  its  turn,  to  re-act  upon  the  philo- 
sophical and  religious  ideas  of  the  Western  world. 

It  is  only  by  way  of  suggestion  that  I  refer  here  to  individual  con- 
versions of  Europeans  to  the  faiths  of  India.  More  frequent  than 
might  be  supposed,  on  a  priori  grounds,  they  none  the  less  form  the 
exception.2   Nor  shall  I  dwell  upon  the  modifications  which  the  direct 

1.  Fortnightly  Revieiv  of  January,  1883. 

2.  Garcin  de  Tassy,  who  kept  an  account  of  these  "perversions,"  as  he  called 
them,  mentions  the  occurrence  of  seven  in  1874  and  of  nine  during  1875  ;  among 
others  he  refers  to  the  case  of  an  English  captain,  who  had  adopted  the  Mussul- 
man faith  at  Bangalore.  He  also  speaks  of  a  young  Englishman  who  had  become 
a  Yogui  and  had  placed  himself  under  the  spiritual  direction  of  the  officiating 
minister  of  the  Hindu  Temple  at  Mount  Jago.  {Revue  de  la  Littcralure  Hindon- 
stanie  for  1874,  1875,  1876.)  Less  calculated  to  arrest  public  attention,  but  more 
significant  and  more  numerous  are  the  conversions  to  the  philosophical  ideas  of 
India.  Speaking  from  personal  experience,  I  may  mention  the  case  of  two  English 
officials  whose  hospitality  I  shared  during  my  journeys  through  the  interior.     Alike 


BRAHMOISM    AND   THE    RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF   INDIA.  309 

and  continued  contact  of  native  ideas  cannot  fail  to  produce  on  the 
religious  convictions  of  enlightened  and  independent  minds.  But 
when  the  problem  is  considered  from  a  more  general  point  of  view, 
it  becomes  apparent  that  even  to-day  the  influence  of  the  two  countries 
has  been  reciprocal ;  and  if  we  see  in  Brahmoism  the  Hindu  equiva- 
lent of  the  views  in  favour  among  the  more  advanced  minds  of  the 
Christian  Churches,  it  would  be  unjust  to  under-rate  the  influence 
which  has  been  exercised  on  the  latter  by  the  knowledge  of  the 
religious  and  spiritual  systems  due  to  the  genius  of  Oriental  peoples. 

Of  all  the  religious  literature  of  the  East,  our  fathers  knew  only  the 
rigorously  Monotheistic  Scriptures  of  the  Semitic  peoples — the  Bible 
and  the  Koran.  Suddenly,  just  where  they  imagined  there  was 
nothing  but  incoherent  superstitions  or  indecipherable  ruins,  science 
began  to  reveal  the  profound,  consistent,  and,  in  some  instances,  sub- 
lime conceptions  of  the  various  systems  embodied  in  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Brahmans,  the  Buddhists,  and  the  Parsis,  as  well  as  among  the 
tablets  of  Egypt  and  Babylon.  Those  who  have  unexpectedly  found 
themselves  in  presence  of  the  treasures  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Pitakas, 
and,  above  all,  of  the  Vedas,  are  alone  able  to  understand,  from  their 
own  feeling  of  astonishment  and  admiration,  the  importance  of  the 
possibly  unconscious  transformation  of  thought,  which  the  works  of 
Orientalists  have  produced  upon  the  intellectual  and  theological  con- 
ceptions of  Western  society.  If  we  have  perchance  awakened  to 
activity  the  dogma  of  Divine  transcendence  among  the  Hindu  re- 
formers, has  not  India,  on  the  other  hand,  aided  in  bringing  before 
the  Monotheists  of  the  West  the  conception  of  Divine  immanence, 
which  restores  God  to  Nature,  or  rather  Nature  to  God  ?  Where,  in 
these  days,  do  we  find  any  trace  of  the  cold  and  abstract  Deism  of 
last  century,  which,  after  having  suppressed  miracles,  did  not  know 
what  to  do  with  its  Divinity,  who  was  inert  and  superfluous,  having 
no  relation  to  either  nature  or  humanity?  And  if,  in  the  majority 
of  modern  schools  of  religious  thought,  this  Deism  is  replaced  by 

versed  in  the  languages  of  the  country,  they  had  distinguished  themselves  by  pro- 
found researches,  the  one  on  the  Buddhists  of  the  Himalaya  and  the  other  on  the 
legend  of  Krishna.  At  the  time  when  I  made  their  acquaintance,  the  former  a 
Protestant  by  birth,  had  become  a  disciple  of  Schopenhauer,  if  not  of  Buddha ; 
the  latter,  who  at  first  became  a  convert  to  Catholicism,  had  absolutely  adopted  the 
Vedantine  philosophy  of  the  Bhavagad  Gita,  which  he  sincerely  believed  he  could 
reconcile  with  Catholic  theology. 


310  BRAHMOISM  AND   THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF  INDIA. 

more  synthetic  and  living  conceptions,  which  re-open  the  fountains 
of  religious  emotion  while  they  facilitate  the  reconciliation,  not  of 
science  with  religion,  but  of  religion  with  science,  is  not  this  change 
due,  in  some  measure,  to  that  philosophical  literature  of  the  East, 
which  is  pervaded  by  so  profound  a  sentiment  of  close  relationship 
between  the  three  great  factors  of  the  religious  idea — God,  nature 
and  humanity? 

Just  before  leaving  Europe  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit,  Protab 
Chunder  Mozoumdar  had  a  long  conversation  with  Professor  Tyndall, 
who  had  just  shocked  orthodox  England  by  his  open  avowal  of 
religious  scepticism  at  the  Belfast  meeting  of  the  British  Association. 
"  Working  in  the  cold  light  of  the  understanding,"  said  the  eminent 
English  physicist,  "  we  feel  here  the  want  of  the  fire  and  vigour  of  the 
religious  Life.  This  is  all  but  extinct  in  England.  In  saying  so,  and 
in  not  accepting  it  at  the  hands  of  those  who  have  it  not,  I  have 
become  unpopular.  Let  those  who  have  the  Life  give  it  unto  us. 
To  you,  therefore,  in  the  East  we  look  with  real  hope.  Life  came 
from  those  regions  once  before,  and  it  must  come  again."1 

I  cannot  say  whether  we  are  to  accept  this  compliment  of  the 
English  scientist  to  the  Brahmoist  reformer  in  the  light  of  a  predic- 
tion, but  its  realization  would  not  surprise  those  who  have  studied  the 
present  state  of  India,  as  well  as  the  general  history  of  religious 
thought,  apart  from  all  sectarian  prejudices. 

Professor  Max  Miiller  has  shown  in  one  of  his  finest  works  what 
the  religious  sentiment  of  Europe  may  borrow  from  India.2  In  a 
work  of  a  more  speculative  order,  Von  Hartmann  has  gone  so  far  as 
to  predict  that  the  religion  of  the  future  will  be  a  Pantheistic  Monism, 
which  will  borrow  the  conception  of  the  Divine  immanence  from 
India,  and  that  of  the  Divine  unity  from  the  Judeo-Christian  tradition. 
"  Viewed  from  the  stand-point  of  religious  history,"  says  he,  "  the  aim 
we  propose  to  ourselves  can  only  be  attained  by  a  synthesis  of  the 
development  of  the  Hindu  and  Judeo-Christian  religions,  in  a  form 
which  will  unite  the  advantages  of  these  two  tendencies  of  the  human 
mind,  and  which,  by  remedying  their  mutual  defects,  will  also  be  able 

1.  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar,  Missionary  Operations  in  England,  in  the 
Theistic  Annual  for  1875. 

2.  The  conclusion  of  the  lectures  on  V  Origine  et-le  Developpement  de  la 
religion  etudies  a  la  lumiere  des  religions  de  PInde,  translation  by  M.  J.  Darmes- 
teter.     Paris,  Reinwald,  1879,  page  327. 


BRAHMOISM   AND   THE   RELIGIOUS    FUTURE   OF  INDIA.  311 

to  replace  both,  and  to  thus  become,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word, 
a  universal  religion.  Such  a  Pantheistic  Monism,  whose  metaphysical 
foundations  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  reason,  would  lend  itself,  in 
other  respects,  to  the  liveliest  action  on  the  religious  sentiment,  and 
would  thus  give  to  morals  a  solid  vantage-ground  more  nearly  allied 
to  what  is  called  religious  truth  than  anything  to  be  found  in  any 
other  system."1 

This  truth  Brahmoism  thinks  it  has  found,  or  is  at  least  assured  of 
its  discovery,  and  its  various  Churches,  however  divided  they  may  be 
among  themselves,  are  agreed  in  accepting  the  words  of  Protab 
Chunder  Mozoumdar,  when  he  says,  in  his  apology  for  the  New 
Dispensation,  "We  have  not  now  a  doubt  in  our  minds  that  the 
religion  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  will  be  the  religion  of  India — yea,  of 
the  whole  world,  and  that  those  who  really  care  for  God,  for  piety, 
for  purity,  for  human  brotherhood,  for  salvation  and  for  eternal  life, 
will  have,  in  one  way  or  another,  under  one  name  or  another,  to 
accept  the  faith  and  the  spirit  that  a  merciful  God  is  perpetually 
pouring  into  the  constitution  of  our  Church."2 

Without  professing  to  share  this  absolute  confidence,  which  is  the 
gift  of  faith,  we  may  nevertheless  come  to  the  general  conclusion  that, 
if  the  Hindu  spirit  continues  to  advance  along  the  lines  now  forming 
its  course,  the  world  will  yet  witness  more  than  one  curious  inter- 
change of  religious,  as  well  as  of  moral  and  scientific  ideas;  between 
the  two  great  branches  of  the  Aryan  race.  Was  it  not  from  analogous 
interchanges  between  the  ancient  Pantheism  and  the  Semitic  Mono- 
theism in  the  crucible  of  Neo-Plationism,  that  Christianity  itself  took 
definite  form  in  the  second  century  of  our  era  ?  If  India  helps  us  to 
pass  through  the  religious  crisis  which  is  now  troubling  society,  and  it  is 
perhaps  in  a  condition  to  do  this,  it  will  have  deserved  well  of  all  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  harmonious  development  of  civilization. 

1.  Von  Hartmann,  La  Religion  de  FAvenir,  ch.  ix.  M.  von  Hartmann  has 
subsequently  developed  the  same  idea  in  his  work,  Das  Religiose  Bewustsein  der 
Menscheit  im  Stufengang  seiner  Entwickelung.     Berlin,  1882,  I  vol. 

2.  Brahmo  Year  Book  for  l88i,page  137.  Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar  visited 
England  again  during  the  summer  of  1883,  when  he  preached  in  several  Unitarian 
Churches  with  the  same  acceptance  as  at  the  time  of  his  first  visit.  In  truth  the 
position  he  has  taken  up  belongs  less  to  the  New  Dispensation  than  to  the  general 
principles  of  Brahmoism,  in  other  words,  to  Transcendental  Theism. 


SUMMARY  AND   CONCLUSION. 


In  beginning  this  work,  I  at  first  described  how  the  moral  and 
spiritual  emancipation  of  which  Luther  gave  the  signal  in  his  first  cry 
of  revolt  against  Rome,  came  into  collision  in  England  with  the 
popular  life  of  the  day,  and  even  with  the  motives  which  had  led  to 
the  reform  effected  by  Henry  VIII.  I  showed  in  the  second  place 
how  these  obstacles  were  gradually  smoothed  away,  partly  by  the 
natural  and  legitimate  development  of  the  Protestant  principle,  and 
partly  by  the  intellectual  and  political  influences  at  work  in  secular 
society.  The  reader  was  also  enabled  to  follow  the  course  of  that 
evolution  which  manifested  itself  in  turn  by  the  progress  of  religious 
neutrality  in  civil  legislation,  of  Rationalism  in  the  prevalent  modes 
of  thought,  and  of  liberalism  in  the  constitution  of  the  Churches. 

Is  it  to  be  inferred  that  the  existence  of  religion  is  threatened  by 
this  general  repudiation  of  theocracy?  I  have  shown  that  though 
certain  sects  in  the  Protestant  Churches  pride  themselves  on  ignoring 
the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  aspirations  of  their  age,  and  though 
others  persist  in  seeking  the  means  of  reconciling  the  data  of  science 
with  the  belief  in  miracles  by  means  of  specious  compromises,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  large  number  of  religious  people  and  many  congrega- 
tions have  been  able  to  meet  all  the  claims  of  the  modern  spirit, 
without  breaking  the  continuity  of  religious  thought.  This  extension 
of  the  theological  horizon,  which  is  taking  place  more  or  less  in  all 
sections  of  Christendom,  open  to  a  modification  of  their  dogmas,  is 
specially  manifest  in  those  Churches  which  rest,  not  upon  uniformity 
of  beliefs,  but  rather  upon  identity  of  sentiment.  It  is  the  Unitarian 
Church  which  perhaps  offers  us  the  most  perfect  type  of  the  latter 
condition. 

Anglo-Saxon  Protestantism  might  be  compared,  indeed,  to  the 
division  of  an  army  which  is  executing  a  forward  march.  Day  after 
day  the  main  body  pitch  their  tents  on  the  very  spot  occupied  by  the 
advanced  guard  the  night  before,  and  this  interchange  of  position  is 
so  fully  maintained  between  detachment  and  detachment  that  at 
length  the  rear-guard  takes  up  the  position  evacuated  by  the  centre. 
Each  corps  loses  as  a  matter  of  course  a  few  stragglers  on  the  march, 


314  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

and  sometimes  also  a  few  scouts ;  but  while  the  latter  disappear  from 
the  field  of  battle,  the  former  simply  increase  the  strength  of  the 
columns  immediately  in  their  rear.  Thus  the  relative  positions  remain 
unchanged,  although  the  entire  division  keeps  advancing  nearer  and 
nearer  its  goal. 

As  we  have  seen,  this  progressive  movement  has  not  been  restricted 
to  the  limits  of  liberal  Protestantism,  but  has  manifested  itself  beyond 
the  pale  of  Christian  communions  in  a  two-fold  direction — the  one 
religious  the  other  philosophical. 

In  the  first  place,  the  progressive  elimination  of  dogmatic  elements 
has  produced  a  "  free  religion  "  after  creating  a  "  free  Christianity," 
on  the  basis  of  a  distinction  between  religious  sentiment  and  religious 
belief,  to  be  henceforth  regarded  as  absolute.  Sometimes,  as  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway's  congregation,  this  radical  concep- 
tion assumes  the  form  of  an  aesthetic  worship  rendered  to  the  human 
ideal.  At  other  times,  as  among  the  Free  Religious  Congregations 
of  the  United  States,  it  tends  to  practical  applications  and  religious 
reform.  Regarding  it  in  this  latter  aspect,  we  have  stated  the  results 
it  is  attaining,  from  a  theoretical  point  of  view,  in  the  Comtist  scheme 
of  worship,  as  this  is  organized  in  London;  and  from  a  practical  stand- 
point in  the  recently-formed  "  Societies  for  Ethical  Culture  "  in  New 
York,  Chicago  and  Boston,  which  are  already  surrounded  with  insti- 
tutions making  them  true  Churches  of  humanity.  It  should  be 
remarked,  moreover,  that  when  in  our  day  it  is  a  question  of  carry- 
ing out  some  common  philanthropical  or  moral  aim,  even  the  most 
creed-bound  sects  put  aside  their  differences  in  order  to  unite,  not 
only  among  themselves,  but  even  with  Agnostics  and  sceptics. 

In  the  second  place,  the  rejection  of  a  supernatural  Bible  has 
brought  Theists  of  Christian  antecedents  into  union  with  the  eman- 
cipated minds  of  Jewish  and  Hindu  origin.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  this  Theism  rests  on  principles  long  since  accepted  as  the  essence 
of  natural  religion — in  other  words,  the  existence  of  God,  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  imperative  authority  of  the  moral  law  and  the 
spiritual  value  of  personal  piety,  it  would  appear  that  we  must  really 
have  found  the  final  expression  of  religion,  the  supreme  synthesis  of 
all  the  reforms  carried  on  in  the  name  of  reason  and  conscience. 
Thus  we  can  hardly  fail  to  be  astonished  that  only  some  few  isolated 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION.  315 

congregations,  such  as  Mr.  Voysey's  in  London  and  Mr.  Samuel 
Johnson's  at  Lynn,  U.S.,  should  have  sprung  from  this  school. 
Nor  will  this  surprise  be  diminished  when  it  is  remembered  that 
Theism,  more  or  less  the  result  of  reflection,  constitutes  to-day  the 
dominant  faith  of  the  enlightened  classes  in  England  and  America. 

It  is  because  Theism  is  above  all  things  a  personal  faith  that  we 
meet  with  this  result.  With  some,  it  represents  merely  the  spiritual 
residuum  left  after  the  progressive  elimination  of  orthodox  dogmas. 
With  others,  it  is  the  direct  product  of  the  intuitive  method  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  materials  furnished  by  consciousness.  But  in  the 
one  case  as  well  as  in  the  other  it  leads  to  isolation  rather  than  to 
religious  grouping..  As  to  the  Theists  who  feel  the  need  of  spiritual 
fellowship,  they  often  find  sufficient  to  satisfy  this  without  leaving  the 
historic  Church  in  which  they  have  been  brought  up,  as  happens 
at  times  among  the  advanced  Unitarians,  the  liberal  Friends,  the 
Reformed  Jews,  and  even  with  certain  sections  of  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  Presbyterians.  It  is  only  in  India  that  pure  Theism 
has  produced  a  whole  net-work  of  fervent  congregations ;  and  this 
result  is  doubtless  as  much  due  to  the  mystical  temperament  of  the 
Hindu  race  as  it  is  to  the  successive  failure  of  all  attempts  to  regener- 
ate the  old  native  creed. 

Transcendental  Theism,  which  seemed  about  to  endow  America 
with  a  new  religion  half  a  century  ago,  would  have  merited  this  bril- 
liant success  had  it  been  merely  a  question  of  the  elevation  of  its 
principles  and  the  fruitfulness  of  its  teachings.  But,  like  German 
Idealism,  whose  most  mystical  tendencies  it  represented,  this  move- 
ment, which  Parker  and  Emerson  rendered  illustrious,  fell  a  victim 
to  its  own  excesses  the  very  day  it  encountered  its  old  adversary, 
Sensationalism,  supported  this  time  by  the  marvellous  discoveries  of 
the  positive  sciences. 

It  is  difficult  to  predict  where  victory  will  ultimately  declare  itself, 
in  this  conflict  between  the  two  philosophies  which  have  always 
struggled  for  the  mastery  in  the  human  mind.  Rendered  more 
circumspect  by  their  reciprocal  vicissitudes,  they  both  seem  to  be 
approaching  a  common  stand-point  to-day,  possibly  with  a  view  to 
making  a  permanent  compromise,  by  the  adoption  of  some  system 
which,  while   it   admits  that  positive  knowledge  is  limited  to   the 


316  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

phenomenal  world,  shall  proclaim  the  absolute  existence  of  a  tran- 
scendent Reality. 

This  double  thesis,  it  should  be  added,  was  long  since  adopted 
by  Kant,  and  the  success  of  the  works  which  the  centenary  of  the 
illustrious  German  philosopher  has  called  forth,  seems  to  indicate  that 
his  school  after  sustaining,  without  submission,  one  of  the  most  violent 
assaults  known  to  the  history  of  philosophy,  is  still  capable  of  resum- 
ing an  ascendency  over  modern  thought,  or  at  least  offering  a  starting 
point  for  some  new  synthesis  of  the  Universe,  in  conformity  with  our 
present  scientific  knowledge.  It  is  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason 
which  directly  inspires  an  influential  section  of  the  so-called  Agnostic 
school,  and  it  is  perhaps  owing  to  its  having  sounded  in  time  a  retreat 
upon  Kant,  that  English  Theism  has  not  shared  the  fate  of  American 
Transcendentalism. 

If  we  seek  to  ascertain  what  modern  criticism  has  not  been  able  to 
shake  in  the  sphere  of  the  super-sensible,  we  shall  hardly  find  more 
than  can  be  summed  up  in  the  four  following  propositions  : — 
(i)  The  positive  existence  of  a  Supreme  Reality  which  reveals  itself 
in  consciousness  but  which  transcends  all  definition. 

(2)  Our  constant  state  of  dependence  upon  this  Reality,  in  which  we 

live,  move  and  have  our  being. 

(3)  The  certainty  that  this  Power  manifests  its  action  by  fixed  and 

general  laws. 

(4)  A  connecting  link  of  some  kind  between  this  action  and  the 

tendency  which  prompts  us  to  do  our  duty. 

The  reader  must  not  mistake  the  scope  of  this  enumeration.  It 
assuredly  falls  far  short  of  the  principles  generally  looked  upon  as  the 
essence  of  natural  religion.  It  fails,  indeed,  in  my  opinion,  to 
embody  all  the  beliefs  which  are  to  be  reconciled  with  the  existing 
affirmations  of  science.  I  have  not  made,  for  instance,  any  allusion 
in  it,  to  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul,  although  that  hypothesis, 
as  Mr.  James  Sully  formally  asserts,  has  not  been  rendered  untenable 
by  all  the  attacks  of  positive  science.  Even  more,  it  seems  difficult 
to  accept  the  last  two  propositions  without  deducing  from  them,  as  a 
corollary,  the  existence  of  a  mysterious  end  towards  which,  not  only 
humanity,  but  also  the  whole  economy  of  Nature  is  tending — whether 
we  employ  the  term  Final  Cause  or  not,  to  indicate  this  goal.     But  I 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION.  317 

make  no  claim  whatever  to  utter  the  last  word  of  science  in  its  bear- 
ing on  religion ;  my  object  has  simply  been  to  summarize  the  truths 
relating  to  a  super-sensible  order  of  things,  which  may  be  looked  upon 
as  generally  admitted  by  contemporary  scientists  and  thinkers  in,  at 
least,  the  Anglo-Saxon  world. 

Now — apart  from  the  advocates  of  the  old  physiological  Materialism, 
who  are  every  day  becoming  more  rare,  and  the  small  sceptical  school 
entrenched  within  the  universal  Phenominalism  of  Hume,  together 
with  the  group  of  orthodox  Positivists  who  systematically  refuse  to 
discuss  the  question  of  the  Unknowable — it  may  be  affirmed  that 
these  four  propositions  are  accepted  by  all  who  are  in  any  way 
capable  of  exercising  an  influence  on  modern  culture,  from  the  liberal 
theologians  of  the  Anglican  Church  and  of  the  Dissenting  sects  to  the 
evolutionists  in  harmony  with  Spencer  and  the  critical  thinkers  of  the 
Kantian  school.  We  may  see  in  them,  therefore,  not  the  faith  of  to- 
morrow, but  its  first  outlines,  the  indestructible  basis  of  every  edifice 
of  religious  thought,  the  crypt,  "  still  so  narrow  and  obscure"  in  which 
Professor  Max  Muller  shows  us  the  Hindu,  the  Buddhist,  the  Mussul- 
man, the  Jew,  and  the  Christian,  each  bringing  the  truest  and  purest 
elements  of  his  creed  to  serve  as  materials  for  erecting  the  Church  of 
the  future. 

Even  now,  the  Churches  are  not  alone  in  furnishing  either  materials 
or  workmen  for  this  process  of  reconstruction.  For  though  in  the 
course  of  this  volume  I  have  been  compelled  to  register  the  blows 
dealt  by  contemporary  science  at  the  old  mode  of  argument  in  support 
of  spiritual  religion,  I  have  also  been  able  to  relate  the  happy  efforts 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  either  to  strengthen  the  foundations  of 
rational  theology  by  new  arguments,  or  to  find  fresh  sources  of  religious 
inspiration  in  the  harmony  of  the  cosmos  and  the  mystery  of  the 
Unknowable.  It  is  not  merely  Christian  ministers  such  as  Dr. 
Martineau,  Mr.  Savage,  Chadwick  and  Heber  Newton  or  leaders  of 
Free  Congregations  like  Voysey,  Conway,  and  Potter,  or,  indeed, 
literary  men  such  as  Prof.  Seeley,  Mr.  Graham,  Matthew  Arnold,  &c., 
who  have  devoted  themselves  to  this  task.  It  is  also  the  principal 
representatives  of  English  science  from  Darwin  to  Herbert  Spencer, 
with  Wallace,  Jevons,  Tait,  Balfour  Stewart,  Tyndall,  and  Dr.  Car- 
penter— those  whom  preachers  sometimes  treat  as  Atheists  as  well  as 
those  who  glory  in  the  profession  of  Christianity. 


318  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

"  There  is  no  more  remarkable  feature  in  the  philosophy  of  our 
day,  wrote  Prof.  Fairbairn  in  the  Contemporary  Review  of  July,  1881, 
than  its  endeavour  to  baptize  its  highest  ideals  in  the  emotions  or 
even  enthusiasms  of  religion,  to  penetrate  its  ultimate  doctrines  with 
something  of  the  Theistic  spirit  and  power.  This,  perhaps  the  most 
common  and  characteristic  tendency  of  all  our  modern  systems,  is 
due  to  many  causes — to  the  nobler  and  more  reverent  spirit  of  the 
age ;  to  the  sense  of  weakness  deepening  in  man,  with  his  growing 
consciousness  of  the  immense  energies  he  has,  but  the  still  immense 
work  they  have  to  do ;  to  the  larger  sense  of  humanity  that  marks  our 
culture,  making  men  sensitive  to  human  misery,  conscious  of  a  kinship 
with  the  suffering  millions  that  have  suffered  in  the  past ;  to  the  new 
feeling  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  order  that  reigns  around  us,  the 
almightiness  of  the  law  that  binds  into  an  ordered  and  organized 
universe  the  infinitude  of  material  atoms  and  the  multitude  of  spiritual 
units,  each  by  itself  so  feeble  and  wayward,  but  altogether  so  mighty 
and  glorious.  But,  however  the  tendency  may  be  explained,  it  is 
there,  urging  men  of  all  systems  to  find  a  symbol  or  substitute  for 
Deity,  a  field  and  law  for  religious  emotions." 

Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham  indicated  the  same  tendency  in  the  United 
States,  when  he  said  in  the  preface  of  his  Freedom  and  Fellowship  in 
Religion :  "  The  destructive  period  is  about  passed  by ;  the  constructive 
period  has  begun.  In  science  the  greatest  men  are  distinguishing 
themselves  by  positive  generalizations.  In  philosophy,  the  lines  are 
converging  towards  certain  central  principles.  .  .  .  For  a  long 
time  yet  the  relentless  armour  must  be  worn ;  but  sentiment  and 
imagination,  recovering  from  the  shock  occasioned  by  the  fall  of  their 
old  idols  are  rallying  courageously  to  do  their  part  in  peopling  the 
new  heavens  with  worshipful  ideals  and  clothing  in  robes  of  glory  the 
august  forms  which  the  seraphs  at  the  gate  of  knowledge  allow  passage 
to  the  upper  skies." 

There  is  in  all  this  a  sort  of  second  edition  of  the  intellectual 
phenomena,  which  occurred  at  the  time  of  the  Antonines.  In  a 
parallel  of  this  kind  it  is,  of  course,  necessary  to  take  into  account 
the  special  characteristics  of  each  epoch.  Ancient  civilization  was  all 
at  the  surface ;  it  was  not  based  upon  a  co-ordinated  sum  of  positive 
knowledge ;  it  did  not  extend  down  to  the  humbler  classes  by  the 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION.  319 

intervention  of  popular  education ;  it  was  restricted  to  a  small  area  of 
the  globe  and  therefore  liable  to  be  destroyed  in  any  social  cataclysm 
of  a  partial  or  local  character.  It  might  be  compared,  indeed,  to  a 
fine  majestic  oak  which  yields  to  a  few  strokes  of  the  axe,  applied  to 
its  roots.  Our  civilization,  however,  rather  resembles  those  banyan 
trees  of  India,  whose  branches  reach  down  to  the  soil  and  put  forth 
rootlets  which  give  rise  to  new  trunks,  so  much  so  that  to  cut  down  a 
tree  it  would  be  necessary  to  uproot  a  forest. 

Then  again  printing  and,  above  all,  journalism,  have  wholly  changed 
the  conditions  of  religious  propagandism.  Controversy  has  reached 
new  strata  of  society,  and  it  has  become  more  difficult  to-  close  the 
ears  of  the  pious  world  to  any  storm  of  criticism  which  may  be  raging 
beyond  the  pale  of  the  Churches.  Superstitions,  again,  have  to  run 
the  risk  of  being  tested  in  the  light  of  thought,  and  impostures  of 
being  exposed  before  they  have  had  time  to  crystalize  into  legends 
and  dogmas.  On  the  other  hand,  religious  proselytism  has  seen  its 
sphere  of  action  increased  tenfold,  and  the  journalist  tends  to  replace 
the  missionary.1 

But  all  these  social  differences  only  serve  to  render  more  striking 
the  analogy,  if  not  of  the  facts  and  doctrines  at  least  of  the  situations 
and  tendencies,  between  contemporary  society  and  the  Pagan  world 
during  the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era. 

Then,  as  now,  the  old  popular  theology  had  been  superseded  by 
the  progress  of  reason ;  a  natural  reaction  had  led  to  the  successive 
predominance  of  the  sober  and  correct  Deism  of  Cicero ;  the  Material- 
ism of  Epicurus  as  sung  by  Lucretius ;  and  the  system  of  humanitarian 
morality  of  which  the  Stoics  made  themselves  the  brilliant  interpreters; 
it  might  have  been  supposed  that  Scepticism  was  about  to  gradually 
invade  all  classes  of  society.  But  after  having  measured  the  in- 
sufficiency of  purely  negative  solutions,  the  best  minds  found  themselves 
once  more,  by  a  sort  of  fatality,  in  the  presence  of  the  enigmas  of  the 
Sphinx,  which  has  devoured  so  many  religions  and  philosophies ;  the 

I.  In  1783,  eleven  years  after  the  death  of  Swedenborg,  two  clergymen,  who 
had  been  converted  by  the  study  of  his  works,  inserted  an  advertisement  in  the 
English  newspapers,  soliciting  the  co-operation  of  those  willing  to  join  them  in 
founding  the  New  Jerusalem  Church.  Such  was  the  commencement  of  Sweden- 
boigianism,  which  now  reckons  some  thousands  of  adherents  in  Europe  and 
America. 


320  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

insoluable  problem  of  origin  and  end,  the  disquieting  questions  of 
evil,  of  duty,  and  of  destiny. 

Then,  as  now,  there  were  champions  of  the  past  who  attempted  to 
justify  the  belief  in  revelations,  prophecies  and  miracles  by  an  appeal 
to  the  native  incapacity  of  human  reason.  There  were  others  again, 
who,  more  intelligent  in  their  Conservatism,  sought  to  reconcile  the 
old  forms  to  the  new  ideas  by  means  of  an  ingenious  symbolism. 
This  solution,  which  was  specially  the  work  of  the  Mysteries,  seemed 
calculated  to  make  every  one  satisfied  with  a  religion  possessed  of 
neither  Bible,  Councils  nor  Pope.  Still  it  failed,  as,  according  to  the 
sincere  avowal  of  Dean  Stanley,  the  attempts  to  reconcile  the  letter 
of  Revelation  with  the  discoveries  of  science  have  failed  in  our 
own  day. 

Looking  at  the  question  from  another  point  of  view,  the  knowledge 
of  foreign  systems  of  faith  and  worship — which,  in  reproducing  itself 
in  our  day,  has  so  largely  contributed  to  the  extension  of  our  theo- 
logical horizon — had  produced  in  the  Roman  Empire  an  Eclecticism 
eminently  favourable  to  new  metaphysical  and  religious  conceptions. 
Not  that  it  created  many  new  forms  of  faith ;  Paganism,  at  the  time 
of  Alexander  Severus,  was  sufficiently  broad  to  open  its  Pantheon  to 
all  the  gods.  But  under  cover  of  old  traditions,  and  often  within  the 
shadow  of  ancient  sanctuaries,  new  theological  ideas  tended,  as  they 
do  to-day,  to  direct  to  worthier  objects  that  reverence  which  was  no 
longer  given  to  the  old  divinities. 

Meanwhile,  there  was  being  developed  in  the  lowest  strata  of  society, 
a  fermentation  of  religious  sentiment  which,  finding  its  ancient  chan- 
nels obstructed,  now  over-flowed  in  some  popular  eccentricity — now 
assumed  the  form  of  a  vague  philosophical  Mysticism.  It  was  the 
same  "  hunger  for  spiritual  food,"  to  use  the  expression  of  an  Ameri- 
can observer,1  which  is  showing  itself  to-day  even  in  the  populations 
of  the  Far  West,  and  which  so  often  assumes  there  the  form  of  a 
belief  in  Spiritualism.  Besides,  whether  we  consider  the  calling  up 
of  spirits,  the  prophetic  mutterings  of  a  few  eccentric  heretics,  or  the 
extravagances  of  the  Salvation  Army,  it  suffices  to  glance  at  such 
works  as  Heterodox  London,  by  Maurice  Davies,  New  America,  by 
Hepworth  Dixon,  or  simply  the  miscellaneous  reports  of  the  Press 

I.  See  the  passage  which  refers  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association  in  1881. 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION.  321 

in  the  two  hemispheres,  in  order  to  see  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  have 
no  cause  to  envy  the  Syrian  miracle-workers  or  the  Egyptian  Theo- 
sophists.  The  wonders  wrought  by  the  medium,  Slade,  are  quite  on 
a  par  with  those  of  Simon  the  Magician.  The  badge  adopted  by 
Joe  Smith  has  not  found  less  sincere  adherents  than  the  Sybilline 
literature,  and  "General"  Booth  has  made  more  recruits  than  Alexander 
the  Paphlagonian  or  Apollonius  of  Thyana.  It  might  be  supposed, 
indeed,  if  we  confined  our  attention  to  these  superficial  aspects,  that 
while  religions  pass  away  superstitions  remain. 

Happily,  the  analogy  is  not  restricted  to  these  lower  manifestations 
of  religious  activity— the  mere  dross  of  the  transfusion  being  effected 
in  religious  beliefs.  There  came  a  time,  in  the  life  of  the  ancients, 
when  the  old  philosophical  schools  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Epicurus 
ceased  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  criticism  as  well  as  the  needs  of 
faith.  Stoicism,  after  finishing  its  work  of  intellectual  sanitation  and 
of  humanitarian  propagandism,  found  itself,  like  the  school  of  Littre 
and  Mill  to-day,  insensibly  absorbed  by  systems  of  thought  which 
were  more  complete  or  at  least  bolder  in  their  claim  to  interpret  the 
universe.  Now,  the  philosophers  of  that  epoch  had  so  refined  away 
the  idea  of  God,  by  attempting  to  reduce  it  to  the  idea  of  Absolute 
and  of  Substance,  that  they  had  dug  an  impassable  abyss  between 
man  the  Author  of  things.  After  the  Judeo- Alexandrians,  who  had 
made  of  the  Divinity  a  pure  spirit,  came  the  early  Neo-Platonists, 
who  declared  this  supreme  principle  to  be  above  intelligence,  as 
indeed  superior  to  life  and  motion,  and  therefore  beyond  and  above 
all  conception.  They  admitted,  however,  that  man,  as  a  finite  being, 
could  enter  into  union  with  God  by  the  self-obliteration  of  voluntary 
renunciation,  and  they  sought,  in  the  Oriental  theory  of  emanation, 
which  explained  nature  by  the  fall  of  spirit  into  matter,  the  meta- 
physical bridge  so  much  needed  to  cross  from  the  Unconditioned  to 
the  finite,  from  pure  spirit  to  the  phenomenal  world.  But  their  suc- 
cessors taught  that  God  is  as  inaccessible  as  He  is  ineffable. 

Towards  whom  then  could  the  prayers  of  the  masses  or  the  smoke 
of  the  sacrifices  ascend?  Who  then  remained  in  the  height  of  the 
heavens  to  respond  to  the  aspirations  and  to  sympathize  with  the 
anguish  of  the  human  heart?  As  all  communication  with  the  Un- 
knowable was  now  cut  off,  search  had  to  be  made  for  a  mediator  or 

x 


322  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

"  second  God."  Each  brought  his  Demiurgus.  The  Greek  and  the 
Persian  offered  to  the  masses  the  Sun,  under  the  form  of  Apollo  or  of 
Mithra.  The  Egyptians  turned  to  their  god  Hermes ;  certain  Jews 
suggested  the  Wisdom  of  the  Eternal.  Simon  of  Gitto  proposed  his 
Helen.  Philo  put  forward  the  Logos ;  the  Apostle  Paul  the  Christ 
of  the  Nazarenes,  and  the  Evangelist  John  these  two  conceptions 
united.  The  reader  knows  the  result  of  this  competition,  which 
decided  for  a  period  as  yet  incomplete,  the  religious  destiny  of 
Western  civilization. 

Now,  here  again,  after  the  long  slumber  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
modern  criticism  has  resumed  the  work  of  ancient  philosophy.  For 
a  second  time  human  reason  has  striven  to  reduce  God  to  the  concep- 
tion of  an  indefinable  and  inaccessible  existence,  without  attributes 
common  to  the  phenomenal  world,  and  destitute  of  all  possible  rela- 
tion to  the  human  mind.  Hence  speculation  has  hastened  to  begin 
a  search  for  some  intermediate  agency  to  fill  the  void  which  the  soul 
seems  to  hold  in  horror. 

Herbert  Spencer  admits  that  men  will  always  have  recourse  to 
symbols  to  represent  the  Unknowable.  But  he  abstains  from  pro- 
posing or  recommending  any. 

The  Unitarians  would  retain  a  mediator  in  the  person  of  a  Jesus 
modified  according  to  the  demands  of  critical  thought.1 

The  Transcendentalists  of  Europe,  America,  and  India  trust  to 
conscience,  which  they  regard  as  representing  the  Divine  Word  in  man. 

Professors  Tait  and  Balfour  Stewart,  returning  by  the  path  of  science 
to  a  sort  of  Neo-Platonism,  suppose  that  between  God  and  the  world 
there  exists  an  invisible  and  eternal  universe,  of  which  phenomenal 
nature  is  in  some  measure  a  transitory  materialization. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  seemed  inclined  to  resuscitate  the  doctrine 
of  the  hermetic  chain  which  made  all  great  reformers  special  mes- 
sengers of  the  Divinity,  and  his  disciples  of  the  New  Dispensation 
appear  to  follow  him  in  this  tendency. 

Felix  Adler  and  Moncure  D.  Conway  offer  for  the  veneration  of 
their  followers  the  ideal  which  the  human  mind  forms  of  absolute 
perfection. 

I.  This  is  only  true  of  the  older  and  more  conservative  school  of  Unitarians. — 
Translator. 


SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION.  323 

Finally  the  orthodox  disciples  of  Comte  reserve  their  homage  for 
Humanity  personified  in  its  noblest  types,  and  if  the  majority  of 
Comtists  refuse  to  express  an  opinion  respecting  the  existence  of  a 
Supreme  Reality,  some  among  them,  in  imitation  of  Mr.  W.  Frey, 
claim  to  reconcile  their  creed  with  the  philosophy  of  evolution,  by 
making  the  Great  Being  Humanity  the  minister  and  mediator  of  the 
Unknowable. 

Now  we  might  be  tempted  to  see  in  these  views  the  last  gasp  of  a 
dying  religion.  But  he  who  studies  them  closely  and  impartially  will 
not  fail  to  recognize  in  them  the  first  signs  of  a  new  faith.  If  there 
is  any  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  present  work  it.  is  that  religion 
is  neither  dead  nor  dying  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race ;  but  that  on  the 
contrary,  it  has  never  been  more  tenacious  of  life  nor  more  fruitful, 
and  perhaps  never  nearer  an  entire  renovation. 

Does  it  follow  from  this  that  we  are  even  now  in  possession  of  the 
formula  of  this  regeneration,  and  that  in  order  to  find  the  needed 
organism  we  have  only  to  look  round  among  the  Churches  which  have 
sprung  from  the  Rationalistic  movement  and  select  the  one  best  fitted 
to  absorb  and  outlive  its  rivals  ?  Logic  and  history  alike  bid  us  be 
on  our  guard  against  so  hasty  a  conclusion. 

If  it  had  been  a  question  of  fixing  upon  the  form  of  religion  destined 
to  take  the  place  of  Paganism,  when,  about  the  middle  of  the  first 
century,  the  Government  of  Tiberius  expelled  from  Rome,  as  Sueto- 
nius tells  us,  the  disciples  of  one  Chrestus,  who  had  created  a  disturb- 
ance in  the  Jewish  quarter,  some  would  have  doubtless  turned  their 
eyes  towards  the  Academy  or  the  Portico ;  others  would  have  men- 
tioned the  Mysteries  of  Isis,  Eleusis  or  Mithra;  a  certain  number 
would  have  suggested  the  philosophical  schools  of  Rome  and  Alex- 
andria ;  and  the  most  daring  spirits  would  have  perhaps  alluded  to 
the  Dualism  of  Persia  or  the  Buddhism  of  India.  No  one,  however, 
would  have  fixed  upon  a  miserable  handful  of  Jewish  innovators, 
disowned  by  their  fellow-countrymen  ;  or  even,  somewhat  later,  would 
have  turned  to  those  alleged  Atheists  who  were  beginning  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  police  by  their  mysterious  meetings  in  the  sub- 
terranean vaults  of  the  imperial  town. 

With  all  deference  to  human  pride,  be  it  said,  everything  in  nature 
is  of  humble  origin,  and  no  one  can  say  to-day  whether  the  uncon- 


324  SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

scious  mission  of  the  publicans  and  fishermen  who  grouped  themselves 
around  a  sweet  and  mystic  idealist  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Tiberias 
eighteen  centuries  ago,  will  not  be  renewed  to-morrow  in  our  midst 
by  some  band  of  Spiritualists  holding  their  seances  in  a  recess  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  ;  by  some  gathering  of  enthusiasts  discussing 
Socialism  in  a  back  parlour  in  London ;  or  by  some  confraternity  of 
ascetics  meditating,  like  the  Essenes  of  old,  on  the  miseries  of  the 
world  in  a  jungle  of  Hindustan.  Perhaps  their  only  need  would  be 
to  find  another  Paul  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  in  order  to  enter  upon 
the  ways  of  the  age  under  his  direction. 

Powerless  as  we  are  to  predict  the  name  or  even  the  form  of  the 
religion  of  the  future,  can  we  not  at  least  conceive  of  the  needs  it 
must  satisfy  and  the  tendencies  to  which  it  will  have  to  adapt  itself? 
As  early  as  the  first  century  of  our  era,  an  impartial  observer  could 
have  predicted  with  certainty  that  the  approaching  system  of  religion 
would  have  to  manifest  the  sentiments  of  humanity,  fraternity  and 
universal  charity ;  that  it  would  have  to  preach  gentleness,  humility 
and  continence,  with  a  scorn  for  riches  and  pleasure ;  that  it  would 
have  to  emphasize  the  promises  of  a  future  life  as  a  recompense  for 
the  ills  and  injustices  of  the  present ;  and,  lastly,  that  it  would  have 
to  re-act  against  the  old  anthropomorphic  theogonies,  by  presenting  for 
the  adoration  of  men  a  God  who  should  be  Spirit,  Purity  and  Love. 

To-day  those  aspects  of  the  Divine  which  seem  to  specially  attract 
us  are  Science,  Law,  Harmony,  and  consequently  Justice  :  The  faith 
of  the  future  will  have  to  take  note  of  the  movement  which  has  pre- 
vailed in  the  realm  of  science  ;  it  will  have  to  adapt  its  theology  to 
the  ideas  of  immanence,  continuity  and  uniformity  in  the  order  of  the 
universe. 

But  a  religion  is  not  merely  the  dramatized  reproduction  of  a 
cosmical  system.  From  the  very  fact  that  it  is  a  reflex  of  the 
ideal,  it  also  represents  a  reaction  against  the  moral  imperfection  of 
the  environment  in  which  it  exists. 

Thus  Christianity  has  looked  upon  matter  with  an  excess  of  scorn  : 
the  coming  faith  will  have  to  rehabilitate  the  Beautiful,  sanction  all 
rational  pleasures  and  re-establish  the  communion  of  man  with  nature. 

Our  metaphysical  speculations  have  long  turned  the  attention  of 
the  highest  and  most  generous  minds  from  the  consideration  of  social 


SUMMARY   AND    CONCLUSION.  325 

problems :  the  new  faith  will  have  to  relegate  the  contemplation  of 
super-sensible  things  to  the  second  rank,  in  order  to  concentrate  the 
chief  activity  of  society  upon  the  amelioration  of  the  present  world. 

Our  positive  sciences  tend  more  and  more  to  the  crushing  of  the 
feeble  by  the  strong  in  the  struggle  for  existence :  the  faith  of  the 
future  will  have  to  react  against  this  apotheosis  of  force  and  to  establish 
on  a  religious  foundation  the  rights  of  the  individual. 

Our  economic  science  has  not  answered  to  the  hopes  that  our 
fathers  for  a  while  cherished :  the  future  faith  will  not  only  have  to 
present  us  with  its  solution  of  the  problem  of  evil,  but  it  must  likewise 
provide  us  with  a  remedy,  so  that  more  justice  may  be  brought  into 
the  relations  of  men. 

If  in  developing  these  indispensable  elements  of  a  progressive  and 
harmonious  culture,  this  faith  succeeds  in  retaining  the  principles  of 
sincerity,  spirituality,  and  fidelity  to  duty,  together  with  the  devotedness 
and  enthusiasm  which  have  constituted  the  glory  and  led  to  the  success 
of  its  predecessor,  why  need  we  concern  ourselves  about  the  name 
and  the  symbol  under  which  it  may  be  manifested  in  order  to  secure 
the  peace  of  the  human  soul  and  the  regeneration  of  the  world ! 


INDEX 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  F.  E. ,  his  propositions  at  Syra- 
cuse, 1 86.  His  editorship  of  The  Index, 
187.  His  secession  from  Unitarianism, 
194.  His  pamphlet,  212.  His  sermons, 
220.  His  idea  of  God,  221. 
Academy  of  Concord,    Description  of, 

210.     Its  Hegelianism,  213. 
Acontius,  J.,    his  list  of  doctrines,    18. 

His  synthetic  method,  24. 
Adams,   President,  .his  reference  to  the 

extension  of  Unitarianism,  160. 
Adams,  Rev.  W.,  his  religious  meetings 
in    Calcutta,    233.      His   adoption  of 
Liberal  Christianity,  303. 
Adesh,    a    theory    of    inspiration,    261. 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  use  of  it,  269. 
A  doctrine  of  the  New  Dispensation, 
285,  286. 
Adi  Somaj,  its  opposition  to  the  Hindu 
Marriage  Act,   249.      Chunder  Sen's 
secession  from  it,  261.     The  faith  of, 
284.     Its  belief  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Vedas,  295.     Its  agreement  with 
the  other  Somajes,  304. 
Adler,  Felix,  his  presidency  of  the  Free 
Religious  Association,    &c. ,   191-195. 
Reference  to  his  opinions,  205.     The 
beliefs    of    his   followers,    210.      His 
views  of  morality,    216.      His   belief 
in  the  Absolute,  221. 
Advaita,  the  doctrine  that  the  world  ex- 
ists in  God,  227. 
Adventists,  believers  in  the  second  com- 
ing of  Christ,  77.     One  of  the  Ameri- 
can sects,  205  (note). 
Affirmation  Bill,  Mr.  Gladstone's,  34. 
Agnostics  and  Agnosticism,  a  negative 
school,  4.     Its  development  from  Uni- 
tarianism, 6.     The  origin  of  the  word, 
47.     Their  presence  in  Parliament,  73. 
Their  estimate   of  science,    145.     Its 
relation  to  Spiritualism,  201. 
Ahmed    Khan,   his  judicial   position  at 

Benares,  301. 
Akbar,    The   syncretism   of,   231.     His 
comprehensive  aims,  288. 


Akhai    Kumar  Datta,  his  editorship  of 

a  Hindu  journal,  238. 
Alcott,  A.   B.,  his  connection  with  the 
Transcendental  Club,  174.   His  special 
work,  &c,  180,  181.     His  neo-Pytha- 
gorean  views,  210. 
Alexander  the  Great,   The  victories  of, 

41. 
Alexander  the  Paphlagonian,  The  adhe- 
rents of,  321. 
Alexander  Severus,   The  opinion  of,  in 
relation    to    universal    religion,    2S8. 
Paganism  in  his  time,  320. 
Alexandria,  The  school  of,  and  its  doc- 
trine of  pure  spirit,  &c,  321-323. 
Allah,  The  edifices  devoted  to  the  wor- 
ship of,  226.     A  personal  God,  233. 
Alliance,  Evangelical,  its  growing  liber- 
ality, So. 
Anabaptists,  The  persecution  of,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,    19.      Their  oppo- 
sition to  ecclesiastical  functions,    21. 
Their   origin,    82.      Their    exclusion 
from  New  England,  157. 
Anjumans,  semi-religious  societies  of  In- 
dia, 297.     Their  development,  301. 
Antinomians,  their  exclusion  from  New 

England,  157. 
Apollonius  of  Thyana,  The  followers  of, 

321. 
Arati,  The  celebration  of,  287. 
Arians,  the  progress  of  their  ideas,   19. 
When   first   known   in  England,   82. 
Their  views  of  Christ,  85.    The  Hindu 
form  of  the  doctrine,  274. 
Aristotle,  The  influence  of,  52.     Dedi- 
cation of  a  month  to  him  by  Comte, 
1 32.     His  large  views  of  religion,  288. 
The  school  of,  321. 
Army,   Salvation,  The   practices  of,    5. 
Its  band,    15.      Its  various  divisions, 
&c. ,  58, 59.     Its  adherents  drawn  from 
the  lowest  classes,  75.      Its  extrava- 
gances, 320. 


330 


INDEX. 


Arminianism  and  Arminians,  The  doc- 
trines of,  19.  Relation  to  Unitarian- 
ism,  93.  Antagonism  to  Predestination, 
160.  Doctrines  of,  held  by  the  Camp- 
bellites,  205. 

Antonines,  the  intellectual  condition  of 
their  age,  318. 

Armstrong,  Rev.  R.  A.,  The  sermon  of, 
89. 

Arnold,  Dr.,  The  influence  of,  64.  His 
views  of  Sacred  History,  65. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  his  definition  of  God, 
9,  50.  His  views  of  the  functions  of  a 
Church,  69.  What  he  sees  in  the 
Unknowable,  220.  His  relation  to 
the  new  school  of  thought,  317. 

Articles,  The  Thirty-nine,  when  formed, 
16.  The  doctrines  of,  66,  67.  How 
accepted  by  Chillingworth,  71.  The 
probable  disappearance  of,  72. 

Arya  Somajes,  their  belief  in  Vedaic  in- 
fallibility, &c,  294,  295. 

Aryans,  the  two  branches  of  family,  7. 
Conception  of  neo-Platonic  Word, 
169.  Races  of  India,  227.  Their 
genius,  236.  Their  ancient  sacrifices, 
275.     Their  migrations,  303. 

Assises,  Francis  of,  his  place  in  the 
Comtist  ritual,  135. 

Association  of  Congregational  Ministers 
at  Brooklyn,  their  resolution,  207. 

Atheists,  their  place  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
classification,  4.  Excluded  from  Par- 
liament. 33,  73.  Relation  to  Herbert 
Spencer's  doctrine,  43.  Their  doc- 
trines in  the  last  century,  84.  The 
profession  of,  a  crime,  159.  Relation 
to  Spiritualism,  201.  The  pessimistic, 
in  India,  236.  Mysticism  of,  in  In- 
dia, 299.    The  ancient  systems  of,  307. 

Atmiya  Sabha,  a  religious  society  formed 
by  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  233. 


Bacon,  Lord,  establishes  the  experi- 
mental method,   23. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  founded  Maryland,  159 
(note). 

Bancroft,  his  History  of  the  United  States, 
156  (note).  His  relation  to  Transcend- 
entalism, 180. 


Baptists,  the  sections  and  numbers  of, 
58,  59.  Their  position  and  churches, 
75-  Gradual  change  of  old  congrega- 
tions, 93.  Their  relative  importance 
in  America,  203. 

Barth,  A.,  quoted  from,  283,  297,  298 
(notes). 

Bartol,  C.  A.,  his  Transcendentalism, 
174. 

Beecher,  Rev.  H.  Ward,  his  salary,  202 
(note).  His  liberal  teaching,  205.  His 
popularity,  206  (note).  Estimate  of  his 
heresy,  207.  His  speech  at  the  banquet 
given  to  Herbert  Spencer,  218. 

Beesley,  Professor,  a  champion  of  Comt- 
ism,  136.  His  views  of  the  future  of 
society,  137. 

Bellows,  Rev.  Dr.,  his  desire  for  union, 
185. 

Berkeley,  Bishop,  his  work  of  emancipa- 
tion, 22. 

Bernard,  Claude,  the  place  of  his  teach- 
ings, 214. 

Besant,  Mrs.,  her  connection  with  The 
Freethinker,  32  (note). 

Bhagavad  Gita,  The  poem  of,  229.  The 
philosophy  of,  309  (note). 

Bhakti,  The  doctrine  of,  229.  The  school 
of,  247. 

Bharat  Assam,  a  boarding-house  founded 
by  Chunder  Sen,  251. 

Bharatbharsia  Somaj,  the  name  for  the 
Somfij  of  India,  244.  The  Secretary 
of,  245.  Its  Church,  247.  Its  orga- 
nization and  minister,  248,  250.  The 
congregations  affiliated  to  it,  254 .  The 
unity  of  the,  255.  The  progress  of  the, 
&c,  261-292. 

Bhils,  The  spirit  of  reform  among  the, 
298. 

Biddle,  John,  his  heretical  views,  82. 
His  death,  83.      His  idea  of  Christ, 

85- 

Bisbee,  Mrs.  Clara,  her  religious  work, 
188. 

Black,  Dr.  Patrick,  one  of  Mr.  Voysey's 
Committee,  112  (note). 

Blavatsky,  Madame,  her  connection  with 
the  Theosophical  Society,  296. 

Blount,  his  teaching,  24. 

Blunt,  Mr.  W.  S.,  Prediction  of,  respect- 
ing Mussulman  power,  302. 


INDEX. 


331 


Bolingbroke,  Lord,  The  natural  Mono- 
theism of,  24. 
Booth,    "  General,"    his    statement,    75 

(note).     His  recruits,  321. 
Bruno,  The  religious  susceptibilities  of, 

143  (note). 
Buddhism  and  Buddha,  his  relation  to 
Moses,  &c,  185,  187.  Mr.  Potter's 
reference  to,  191.  Rise  of,  227.  In- 
carnation of,  228.  The  difficulties  of, 
229.  The  adherents  of,  232.  The 
social  insurrection  of,  243.  The  sects 
of,  250  (note).  Numbers  in  India, 
300.  Existence  of,  in  the  time  of 
Christ,  323. 
Bowring,  Sir  J.,  his  connection  with  Mr. 

Voysey,  105,  112. 
Bradlaugh,     his     statement     about     the 
Freethinker,  32.     His  exclusion  from 
Parliament,    34,  97.     Editor    of    the 
National  Reformer,  148. 
Brahm  or  Brahma,  The  sleeping  states 
of,  41.     The  neuter  of  the  name,  234. 
Brahma-Dharma,  means,  "the   rule  of 
Theism,"  238,  239.    The  saving  truths 
of,  245.     The  eclecticism  of,  257-271. 
Its  claims,  275. 
Brahmans,  their  privileges,  227.      Their 
adoption  of  Buddha,    &c. ,   228,   229. 
Ram  Mohun  Roy's  reference  to,  232. 
Their  position  in  the  Brahmo  Somaj, 
234.    The  tradition  of  the,  243.    Their 
opposition  to  reform,  249-253.      The 
societies  of  the,   297.      Their  sacred 
books,  309. 
Brahmoism  and  Brahmoists,  The  different 
schools  of,  2.      Sympathy  for  among 
the   Transcendentalists,   202.       Their 
worship,  226.     Their   numbers,   235. 
The  constitution  of,   &c,  238  (note), 
239.     Their  divisions,    &c,   244-294. 
The  utterances  of,  &c,  303-311. 
Brahmo  Somaj,  its  origin,  234.     Loses 
its  leader,  235.     The  new  comers  to, 
236.       Breaks   with    the    tradition    of 
Hinduism,  238,  239.     Social  reforms 
of  the,  241-255.     The  anniversary  of 
the,  259.    Its  danger,  263.    The  crisis, 
265,  266. 
Brahmo  Somaj,  of  Southern   India,  its 
devotional  readings,  293. 


Brahmo  Public  Opinion,  the  principal 
organ  of  Brahmo  movement,  292.  Its 
reference  to  the  New  Dispensation, 
306.  Its  views  of  religious  culture, 
308. 

Brahmostab,  a  Brahmoist  festival,  246. 
Conference  at  time  of  the,  253. 

Bridges,  Dr.,  his  connection  with  Comt- 
ism,  133. 

Bright,  John,  The  Parliamentary  strug- 
gles of,  120. 

British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion, The  Scotch  correspondent  of,  78. 
The  annual  sermon  of,  94  (note). 
When  founded,  96.  Reprints  life  of 
Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,  161  (note).  An- 
nual meeting  of,  and  Dr.  Putnam's 
address,  220. 

British  Secular  Union,  its  formation, 
148,  149. 

Brooke,  Stopford,  his  change  to  Unita- 
ianism,  93,  94. 

Brownson,  Orestes,  The  religious  changes 
of,  174. 

Biichner,  his  Materialism,  &c,  219. 

Butler,  Bishop,  supported  a  liberal  the- 
ology, 25. 

Byom,  Sar,  its  philosophic  Nihilism,  299. 


Calvin,  Calvinism,  reference  to  by  John 
Hales,  19.  The  central  doctrine  of, 
28.  Its  Puritan  baldness,  62.  Re- 
habilitated by  Professor  Drummond, 
67  (note).  Held  by  the  Baptists,  75. 
Insists  on  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  85. 
God  of,  108.  The  principles  of,  in  the 
United  States,  &c,  155-165.  Is  los- 
ing its  dogmatic  authority,  181.  Im- 
possible to  be  reconciled  with  evolution, 
218  (note). 

Campbellites  or  Disciples,  The  liberal 
movement  of,  205. 

Carlyle,  the  influence  of  his  writings,  27. 
Teaches  German  Idealism,  30,  31, 
163.  Taine's  reference  to,  36.  His 
saying  about  Dr.  Newman,  63.  Re- 
ligious susceptibilities  of,  143  (note). 
Influence  in  India,  257. 

Carpenter,  Dr.,  his  British  Association 
address,  49.  His  relation  to  the  new 
theology,  317. 


332 


INDEX. 


Carvakas,  The  Materialistic  philosophy 
of,  299. 

Castelar,  his  belief  in  religious  recon- 
struction, 3. 

Chambers,  his  Vestiges  of  Creation,  37. 

Calas,  pro-totypes  of,  in  New  England, 
158. 

Catholicism,  the  desire  to  retain  it  in 
English  Ritual,  16.  Number  of  ad- 
herents, 59.  No  halting  place  between 
it  and  irreligion,  63.  Persecution  in 
New  England,  157-  The  power  of, 
195.  Relative  importance  of  in  United 
States,  203.  Seeks  to  enlarge  its  in- 
fluence, 207.  Mention  of  by  Chunder 
Sen,  277- 

Chadwick,  J.  W.,  his  definition  of  Chris- 
tianity, 195.  Value  of  his  lectures, 
220.     His  position,  317. 

Chaitanya,  his  efforts  to  reform  Hindu- 
ism, 229.  The  followers  of,  247. 
Brahmoist  estimate  of,  257.  Invoked 
in  imagination,  280.  Formerly  reviled, 
2S5. 

Channing,  Dr.,  The  words  of,  20.  His 
influence  in  the  Unitarian  Church,  86. 
His  estimate  of  dogma,  95.  Ezra 
Stiles  Gannett,  a  disciple  of,  161  (note). 
His  position  and  work,  162-164.  The 
sermon  of,  at  Baltimore,  174.  His 
power  as  a  writer,  303. 

Channing,  Rev.  W.  H. ,  the  Transcen- 
dentalism of,  174.  His  lectures,  211. 
His  fidelity  to  the  Transcendental 
school,  213. 

Charles  the  First,  The  fall  of,  17. 

Cherbury,  Lord  Herbert  of,  the  father  of 
English  Deism,  24,  25. 

Chib  Chunder  Seb,  the  contemporary  of 
Ram  Mohun  Roy,  292. 

Child,  Lydia,  her  Transcendentalism, 
213. 

Chillingworth,  a  founder  of  the  Latitu- 
dinary  party,  19,  20.  His  view  of 
clerical  subscription,  71. 

Christ,  The  traditional,  26.  Redemp- 
tion by  the  blood  of,  61.  The  super- 
natural, 74.  The  Divinity  of,  83,  85, 
302.  The  miracles  of,  84.  Theistic 
view  of,  88-90.  Mr.  Conway's  esti- 
mate of,  126.  Name  of,  omitted  by 
Comte,    132.      The   pre-existence   of, 


168.  The  nature  of,  174.  The  moral 
teaching  of,  185.  The  disciples  of, 
and  free  inquiry,  186.  Relation  of 
teaching  to  the  doctrine  of  evolution, 
217.  Accepted  by  the  Vishnuites  as 
the  last  incarnation  of  their  god,  228. 
Regarded  as  a  reformer,  258.  Chunder 
Sen's  opinion  of,  273,  274,  277.  How 
honoured,  285.  Preached  as  the  Divine 
Word,  322. 

Christians,  The,  a  Protestant  sect,  74, 
161. 

Christians  of  the  New  Connection,  205. 

Celsus,  his  attacks  on  religion,  178. 

Christadelphians,  a  sect  who  deny  the 
Trinity  and  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  77.  Referred  to  by  Mr.  Spears, 
205  (note). 

Chubb,  one  of  the  Deists.  24. 

Church,  Anglican,  its  signs  of  progress, 
6.  Attitude  towards  Rationalism,  21. 
Coleridge  takes  orders  in  the,  26. 
Subject  to  the  state,  31,  32.  The  oath 
of  adherence  to,  34.  Description  of, 
59-74.  Secessions  from,  to  Unitarian- 
ism,  S3,  84.  Mr.  Voysey's  expulsion 
from,  108.      The  persecutions  of,  157. 

Church  for  Foreigners,  founded  by  Cran- 
mer,  18. 

Church  of  Scotland,  the  baldness  of,  62. 
The  Free  Kirk  secession  from,  76 
(note).     Address  by  a  minister  of,  79. 

Church,  Greek  (in  London),  its  symbol- 
ism, 14. 

Church,  Episcopal  (in  Ireland),  its  sup- 
pression of  the  Aihanasian  Creed,  72. 
Its  resources,  74. 

Church,  Episcopal  (in  the  United  States), 
its  rejection  of  the  Athanasian  Creed, 
72.    Its  adoption  by  the  higher  classes, 

195- 

Church,  Reformed  Episcopal,  its  exten- 
sion in  England,  61.  The  schism  of 
in  America,  205. 

Cicero,  the  Deism  of,  319. 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  his  acceptance 
of  German  Idealism,  174. 

Cleanthes,  the  religious  aims  of,  288. 

Cobbe,  Miss  F.  P.,  her  representative 
position  as  a  Theist,  30,  31.  Her 
opinion  of  the  Reformed  Jews,  118, 
119. 


INDEX. 


333 


Cobden,  The  Parliamentary  struggles  of, 
120. 

Colenzo,  Bishop,  his  acquittal  by  the 
Privy  Council,  64,  71.  His  sincerity, 
64.  His  conversion  to  liberal  opinions, 
303- 

Coleridge,  The  early  career  of,  26,  27. 
His  Transcendental  teaching,  30,  31. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  re-habili- 
tated by,  63.  His  liberal  influence  in 
Anglicanism,  86.  Influence  of  in  the 
United  States,  168.  Influence  of,  in 
India,  257. 

Coleridge,  Lord,  his  reference  to  Mr. 
Bradlaugh's  trial,  32. 

Collet,  Miss  S.  D.,  the  historian  of  Brah- 
moism,  226.  Her  remembrance  of 
Ram  Mohun  Roy,  234.  Her  estimate 
of  Theism,  242.  Her  reference  to 
Hindu  hymns,  247.  The  Year  Book 
of,  251.  Her  description  of  the  activi- 
ties of  a  Somaj,  254.  Thinks  that  fer- 
vour saved  Brahmoism,  &c,  261,  262. 
Opposes  Keshub,  281.  Believes  that 
the  old  divisions  are  being  healed,  294 
(note).  Article  re-produced  by,  305 
(note). 

Collins,  a  member  of  the  Deistical  school, 
24. 

Comtism,  Comte,  his  opinion  of  the 
power  of  passion,  10.  His  philosophy, 
39.  The  Worship  of  Humanity  es- 
tablished by,  129-145.  Marriage  cere- 
mony  of,  151.  Relation  to  Religion 
of  Ethics,  194.  M.  Littre  and  the 
doctrines  of,  210.  The  aims  of,  288. 
Its  chances  of  success  in  India,  298. 
Its  relation  to  the  Philosophy  of  Evo- 
lution, 323. 

Condillac,  The  Sensationalism  of,  36. 

Congregntionalists,  The,  their  numbers, 
59.  The  historical  descendants  of  the 
old  Independents,  53.  Constitution  of 
their  churches,  15S.  Their  relative 
importance  in  America,  203  (note). 
Their  progress  represented  by  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  218.  Attitude  of  the 
advanced  to  the  old  dogmas,  315. 

Confucius,  The  enlightened  views  of, 
288. 


Congreve,  Dr.,  his  adoption  of  Comte's 

religious  system,  133.     The  liturgy  of, 

z34>    x35'      Rejects  the  authority  of 

M.  Lafitte,  136. 

Constant,  Benjamin,  his  works  read  in 

America,  168. 
Conway,  Moncure  D.,  his  opinion  of  the 
Ritualists,  62  (note).  His  contribution 
to  the  Index,  65  (note).  His  chapel 
licenced  for  marriages,  115.  His  theo- 
logical opinions  and  position,  119- 
128.  The  practical  teaching  of,  146. 
Form  of  worship  in  the  congregation 
of,  314,  322.  The  free  congregation 
of,  3r7- 
Clair,  Rev.  G.  St.,  The  transition  state 

of,  93- 
Cooper,  John,  The  Unitarian  teaching 

of,  83. 
Copernicus,  The  cosmogony  of,  28. 
Coquerel,  Athanase,  his  Free  Christian 

sympathies,  95. 
Corrano,  Antoine,   his   rejection  of  the 

Trinity,  19. 
Cosmas,  The  curious  views  of,  28. 
Cosmism,  The  Divinity  of,  3.     The  des- 
cription of,  205-221. 
Courtauld,  Samuel,  his  connection  with 

Mr.  Voysey,  112. 
Cowie,  T.  H.,  his  decision  as  Attorney- 
General  of  India,  248. 
Cranmer,  Archbishop,  invites  scholars  to 

England,  18. 
Crompton,    H.,    his    championship    of 

Comtism,  136. 
Cromwell,  his  treatment  of  Biddle,  83. 
Couch-Behar,  The  Maharajah  of,  marries 
Chunder    Sen's    daughter,    264,    265. 
The  personal  merits  of,  286. 
Curteis,  Rev.  Canon,  The  Boyle  lectures 
of,  70  (note).    His  part  in  the  Spencer- 
Harrison  controversy,  143  (note). 
Cousin,   The   writings   of,  in   America, 
168. 


Dalton,  The  study  of,  in  Boston,  214. 
Darmesteter,  J.,   his  translation  of  Max 
M uller's  lectures,  310  (note). 


334 


INDEX. 


Darwin,  The  hypothesis  of,  37,  38,  40. 
His  action  against  the  persecution  of 
the  Jews,  80  (note).  His  sympathy 
with  Mr.  Voysey,  112.  His  new  views 
of  religion,  317. 

Darwin,  Erasmus,  a  member  of  the  Voy- 
sey Committee,  112. 

Dawson,  Mr.  George,  The  transition 
stage  of,  93. 

Davies,  Maurice,  his  description  of  heter- 
odox congregations,  67,  320. 

Dayananda  Sarasvati  Sivami,  The  mis- 
sionary labours  of,  295. 

Dean,  Rev.  Peter,  his  confession  of  faith, 
&c,  88,92. 

Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  his  personifica- 
tion of  the  Brahmo  movement,  231. 
The  tendencies  of,  236,  237.  Throws 
overboard  infallibility  of  Scriptures, 
238.  Compared  with  Keshub,  241. 
His  preaching  by  example,  243,  244. 
Visits  Chunder  Sen,  282.  His  con- 
nection with  the  Adi  Somaj,  292,  293, 
295. 

Deism,  Deists,  of  the  1 8th  century,  origi- 
nated with  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury, 
24,  25.     The  writings  of,  largely  sold, 

84. 

Descartes,  The  disciples  of,  28.  A  month 
dedicated  to,  by  Comte,  132. 

Dharma  Sabhas,  The  object  of,  297. 

Dial,  The,  the  organ  of  the  Transcend- 
entalists,  174. 

Dissenters,  The  persecutions  of,  22. 
Helped  to  overthrow  the  Stuarts,  32. 
Formerly  excluded  from  Parliament, 
34.  The  Christian  Standard,  an  or- 
gan of  the,  67.  Their  legislation  for 
the  Church,  73.  The  denominations 
of,  77.  The  trust  deeds  of,  80.  The 
theological  progress  of,  317. 

Dix,  Rev.  William,  the  large  salary  of, 
at  New  York,  202  (note). 

Dixon,  Mr.  W.  Hepworth,  his  estimate 
of  the  Spiritualists,  200,  320 

Dollmger,  Dr.,  The  position  of,  in  the 
Old  Catholic  party,  62  (note). 

Dourga.  D;1s  Ray,  The  ethical  views  of, 
286. 

Drummond,  Professor,  The  theological 
views  of,  67,  68  (note). 


Dwarka  Nath  Mitter,  his  championship 

of  Comtism,  298. 
Dwarka  Nath  Tagore,  the  father  of  Deb- 
endra Nath  Tagore,  235. 
Dordrecht,  The  Council  of,  19. 


Edward  VI.,  The  reign  of,  18.  His  hos- 
pitality to  the  Italian  and  Spanish 
Protestants,  82. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  The  Calvinists  in  the 
reign  of,  21.  Puritan  movement  in 
the  reign  of,  155. 

Eliot,  George,  her  estimate  of  James 
Thomson,  147  (note). 

Emerson,  The  religious  susceptibilities  of, 
143  (note).  His  comparison  of  super- 
stition and  principle,  149  (note).  His 
opinions  and  influence  as  the  "  Prince 
of  Transcendentalists,"  170-173,  315. 
Both  a  philosopher  and  poet,  180.  His 
Christianity  contested,  185.  His  con- 
nection with  the  Free  Religious  Asso- 
ciation, 202.  Heard  in  the  Academy 
of  Concord,  211.  His  prediction  of  a 
religious  interregnum,  212.  His  defi- 
nition of  God,  221. 

Emory,  Professor,  one  of  the  Transcend- 
entalists, 211. 

Encampment  of  Christian  philosophy, 
The,  at  Greenwood,  211. 

Epicurus,  The  doctrines  of,  227.  The 
Materialism  of,  319.  The  philoso- 
phical school  of,  321. 


Falkland,  Lord,  his  house  like  a  univer- 
sity, 19. 
Fairbairn,   Professor,   The  opinions  of, 

3i8- 

Feuerbach,  his  Atheism,  36.    His  attacks 

upon  religion,  178. 
Fichte,  The  subjective  Idealism  of,  167, 

168.     His  definition  of  religion,  214, 

215. 
Firmin,  Thomas,   his  love  of  Socinian 

ideas,  83. 
Fiske,  Professor,  develops  the  synthesis 

of  evolution,  214.     His  conception  of 

God,  221. 
Foote,  his  imprisonment,  32  (note). 


INDEX. 


335 


Fox,  W.  J.,  the  minister  of  South  Place 
Chapel,  120.  His  hymns,  121.  Suc- 
ceded  by  Mr.  Conway,  127. 

Francis,  Professor,  a  Transcendentalist, 
174. 

Free  Religious  Association,  formed  by 
Mr.  Abbot,  186.  The  object  of,  187. 
Its  propagandism,  188.  Comparison 
with  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  191 ; 
with  Unitarianism,  194,  195.  Its  re- 
port, 197.  Its  relation  to  Spiritualism, 
201.  Its  Committee,  202.  Its  work, 
influence,  &c,  211-219. 

Free  Christian,  the  movement,  194,  195. 

Free  Church  of  England,  numbers  forty 
congregations,  61. 

Free  Church  of  Scotland,  The  formation 
of,  75- 

Free  Religious  Congregations  at  Provi- 
dence, 189;  at  Florence,  215  (note); 
at  New  Bedford,  214;  at  Dorchester, 
188. 

Freie- Religiose  Gemeinde,  formed  by  the 
Germans,  200. 

Frey,  W.,  his  attempt  to  reconcile  the 
doctrines  of  Comte  and  Spencer,  140- 
146, 323.  His  non-dogmatic  Comtism, 
210. 

Frothingham,  O.  B.,  the  historian  of 
Transcendentalism,  169.  President  of 
the  Free  Religious  Association,  187. 
His  estimate  of  the  Spiritualists,  200. 
His  speech,  219.  Value  of  his  lectures, 
220.  His  views  of  the  constructive 
period,  318. 

Froude,  Mr.,  his  part  in  the  Tractarian 
movement,  62. 

Fuller,  Margaret,  carries  Transcendent- 
alism into  criticism,  &c. ,  1S0,  212. 

Furness,  W.  H.,  a  Transcendentalist, 
174. 


Gannett,  Ezra  Stiles,  his  opinion  of  Dr. 
Ware,  161.     The  biography  of,  207. 

Gannett,  W.  C,  his  father's  biographer, 
161  (note).  His  opinion  of  Channing's 
Baltimore  sermon,  162,  174.  On  the 
Committee  of  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion, 202.  His  views  of  science  and 
religion,  219-221. 


Garcin  de  Tassy,  The  reference  of,  to 
Ram  Mohun  Roy,  231  (note),  234, 
235  (note).  Reference  to  his  work 
on  Hindustan,  296,  302  (notes).  His 
views  of  missionary  work  in  India, 
303.  His  account  of  the  "perversions" 
from  Christianity  308  (note). 

Garfield,  Mr.,  the  candidature  of,  206. 

Gibbon,  the  last  of  the  Deists,  25. 

Guizot,  his  estimate  of  Mr.  Fox's  elo- 
quence, 120. 

Gladstone,  The  Right  Hon.  W.  E.,  his 
description  of  the  various  schools  of 
religious  thought,  4.  His  Affirmation 
Bill,  34.  His  estimate  of  the  religious 
value  of  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy,  45. 

Glanvil,  one  of  the  Latitudinarian  party, 
22. 

Glassites,  The,  their  holy  kiss,  77. 

Goethe,  The  scientific  hypothesis  of,  37. 
The  religious  susceptibilities  of,  143. 

Gotheil,  Dr.,  a  liberal  rabbi,  195. 

Gouri,  a  Hindu  divinity  of  marriage,  267. 

Graham,  W. ,  his  remarkable  work,  50. 
Sees  in  the  Unknowable  an  ordaining 
Power,  220.     The  broad  views  of,  317. 

Grandier,  Urbain,  a  prototype  of  New 
England  persecution,  158. 

Guebres,  Islamism  has  borrowed  from 
the,  231. 


Haeckel,  The  scientific  faith  of,  143 
(note).     The  doctrine  of,  227,  307. 

Hales,  John,  brought  liberal  opinions  to 
England,  19. 

Hall,  Rev.  E.  P., his  translation  of  Bonet- 
Maury's  work,  19. 

Hall,  Rev.  John,  The  salary  of,  202 
(note). 

Hamilton,  Sir  W.,  his  doctrine  of  the 
Unknowable,  40. 

Hari,  a  Hindu  divinity  of  marriage,  267. 
The  god  who  blots  out  sin,  275,  276. 

Harris,  Prof.,  edits  the  Journal  of 'Specu- 
lative Philosophy,  21 1. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  President  of  the 
London  Positivist  Society,  136,  137. 
His  views  of  the  evolutionary  philo- 
sophy, 138.  Controversy  with  Herbert 
Spencer,  139-143  (note). 


336 


INDEX. 


Hartley,  his  influence  on  Priestley,  85. 

Harte,  Bret,  The  stories  of,  120. 

Hartmann,  Von,  his  definition  of  re- 
ligion, 10.  His  prediction  as  to  re- 
ligion in  the  future,  310,  311. 

Hawthorne,  his  power  of  psychological 
analysis,  181. 

Hegel,  Hegelianism,  The  doctrine  of, 
36.    Expounded  at  Concord,  211,  213. 

Henry  the  Eighth,  progress  of  thought 
since  his  reign,  5.  The  ideas  of  his 
time,  17.  The  reform  effected  by, 
3I3- 

Hebrews,  The  Monotheism  of,  29. 

Herder,  The  works  of,  studied  in  America, 

168. 
Hepworth,  Rev.  G.,  his  religious  conser- 
vatism, 194. 
Higginson,  Colonel  Wentworth,his  Tran- 
scendentalism, 174.     Preaches  in  Mr. 
Conway's  chapel,    122.     His  connec- 
tion with  the  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion, 202.     His  fidelity  to  old  beliefs, 
213. 
Hinkley,  Rev.  F.  A.,  examined  as  to  the 
nature  of  "Free  Religion,"  189.     His 
view  of  God,  215  (note). 
Hinduism  and  Hindus,  The  mysticism  of, 
7,  259.    The  monuments  of,  173.    The 
faith  of,  191.     The  idols  of,  226.    The 
intellectual  character  and  vitality  of, 
227,   228.      The  temples  of,   sacked, 
230.     The  superstitions  of,  231.     The 
practices    of,    243,    248.        Marriage 
among  the,  &c,  249-281.     Its  possible 
absorption  of  Brahmoism,  291.      The 
Rationalism  of,  294.     The  movement 
of  thought  among,  297.    The  religious 
character  of,  299.      Sects  of,  &c,  300- 
303.     The   lofty   sentiments   of,   &c, 
305-3°9-     The  emancipated  minds  of, 
314.     Relation  to  other  faiths,  317. 
Hobbes,  destroys  foundations  of  religion, 
22.     His  theory  of  the   Church,    31. 
The   Materialism  of,  36.     The  critic- 
isms of,  209. 
Holyoake,  Austin,  The  death  of,  148. 
Holyoake,  G.  J.,  aids  in  founding  Na- 
tional   Secular    Society,     148.        His 
preaching  in   Unitarian  pulpits,    150, 
195- 


Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  a  writer  and 
humorist,  180. 

Homa,  the  sacrifice  of  fire,  266.  Chun- 
der  Sen's  observance  of,  275. 

Hooker,  his  work  of  emancipation,  22. 

Hopps,  Rev.  J.  P.,  The  special  services 
of,  101  (note). 

Howe,  Mrs.,  her  lectures  at  Concord, 
211. 

Hugo,  Victor,  a  vice-president  of  the 
British  Secular  Union,  150. 

Humanitarians,  The,  a  description  of, 
114-117. 

Hume,  his  universal  scepticism,  25,  36, 
317.  The  life  of,  51.  The  philo- 
sophic nihilism  of,  299. 

Huxley,  his  lay  sermons,  46.  His  ar- 
ticle on  Evolutional.  His  description 
of  Positivism,  131.  The  scientific  faith 
of,  143  (note).  His  works  read  in 
Boston,  214. 


Idealism,  German,  taught  by  Coleridge, 
26.  Its  effect  in  England,  30,  64. 
Produces  the  Transcendental  school, 
170.     See  Transcendentalism. 

Independents,  their  demand  for  religious 
freedom,  21.  Their  support  of  Crom- 
well in  the  amnesty  to  Biddle,  83. 
See  Congregationalists. 

Independent  Religious  Reformers,  their 
lifeless  Theistic  services,  114. 

Indian  Reform  Association,  founded  by 
Chunder  Sen,  250. 

Ingersoll,  Colonel  R.,  his  extreme  utter- 
ances, 204. 

Incarnation,  The  dogma  of,  27. 

Irvingites,    The,    their    symbolism,    14. 

■  Their  churches,  77. 

Islamism.      See  Mohammedanism. 


Jackson,  Dr.,  succeeded  by  Dr.  Temple, 

65. 
Jacobi,  The  doctrine  of,  167.     His  works 

read  in  Boston,  168. 
Jacquemont,   Victor,    his    description  of 

the  English,  226. 
Jaina,  The,  religion,  250. 
James  the  First,  Persecutions  in  the  reign 

of,  156. 


INDEX. 


337 


Jamblicus,  a  thir.ker  in  antiquity,  288. 
Jatkarma,  a  form  of  thanksgiving,  245. 
John,    St.,    the    Evangelist,    his    Logos 

doctrine,  322. 
Jevons,  his  relation  to  the  newer  thought, 

317- 

Johnson,  Samuel,  the  individualism  of, 
174.       His   church   at    Lynn,    Mass., 

213,  315- 
Jones,  Dr.,  his  lectures  at  Concord,  211. 

Jones,  Rev.  Jenkins  L.,  edits  Unity, 
197. 

Jouffroy,  The  works  of,  in  America,  168. 

Jourgi,  a  reformer  among  the  Bhils,  298. 

Jowett,  Prof.,  his  connection  with  Essays 
and  Reviews,  65. 

Jews,  Reformed  or  Progressive,  the  doc- 
trine of,  1 1 7- 1 19.  Their  attitude  to- 
ward the  past,  199.  The  Theists 
among,  315. 

Judas  Iscariot,  Parker's  reference  to,  176 

Jumpers,  The  eccentricities  of,  14. 


Kabir,  substitutes  a  spiritual  faith  for 
Vedas  and  Koran,  230.  The  enlighten- 
ment of,  288. 

Kant,  The  theory  of,  27.  Theistic  school 
traceable  to,  31.  His  relation  to  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  36.  The  reli- 
gious feelings  of,  143  (note).  The 
school  of,  165,  184.  Combats  nega- 
tive psychology,  167.  His  teaching 
the  basis  of  Transcendentalism,  174, 
177,  316.  The  postulates  of,  192. 
The  doctrine  of,  285. 

Karvuna  Chunder  Sen,  the  son  of  Keshub, 
283. 

Kaspary,  Joachim,  the  leader  of  the 
Humanitarians,  115,  116. 

Keble,  his  connection  with  Dr.  Pusey,  62. 

Keene,  Mr.  G.  H.,  his  article  in  The 
Calcutta  Review,  295. 

Kegan  Paul  aids  Free  Christian  move- 
ment, 95. 

Kemp,  his  connection  with  The  Free- 
thinker, 32. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  The  spiritual  power 
of,  99  (note).  In  great  favour  with 
orthodox  Comtists,  134  (note). 


Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  his  communica- 
tion with  the  Transcendentalists,  202. 
Personifies  Brahmoism,  231.     Changes 
Brahma-Dharma  into  a  religion,  239. 
His  family,  241 .    His  views  of  Theism, 
242.     Dines  with  Debendra  and  loses 
caste,  243.    A  similar  violation  of  caste 
and  the  secession  of,  244.     Is  made 
Secretary  of  the  Bharatbharsia  Somaj, 
&c,    245-263.      His   daughter's  mar- 
riage, &c,  264-269.     His  New  Dis- 
pensation,   &c,    273-289.      The   old 
congregation  faithful  to,  292.    Changes 
occasioned  by   death    of,    294  (note). 
His  preaching  in  Unitarian  churches, 
303.     His  relation  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  hermetic  chain,  322. 
Kingsley,  Canon,  The  sincerity  of,  68. 
Koran,    Passages    from,    in    the   Sacred 
Anthology,    121.      Kabir's    treatment 
of,    230.      The    Monotheism  of,   233. 
The  religion  of,  300,  301,  309.     Sup- 
posed origin  of,  302. 
Krishna,  his  worshippers,  229.     Temple 
dedicated  to,  231.     The  legend  of,  309 
(note). 
Krishna  Bihari  Sen  officiates  at  marriage 

of  Keshub's  daughter,  266. 
Kuenen,  Professor,  Banquet  to,  65  (note). 
Represents  school  of  modern  Protest- 
antism in  Holland,  91. 


Laboulaye,  Ed.,  quoted  from  159  (note). 
His  opinion  of  American  Democracy, 
160. 

Lafitte,  P.,  accepted  as  leader  by  Comt- 
ists, 133.     His  authority  rejected,  136. 

Labarre,  a  prototype  of  New  England 
persecutions,  158. 

Lamarck,  The  hypothesis  of,  37. 

Laplace,  The  generalizations  of,  28. 

Laugel,  M.  Aug.,  his  reference  to  Herbert 
Spencer,  45,  46,  138  (note). 

Laveleye,  Emile  de,  his  views  of  Ameri- 
can Democracy,  160. 

Lecky,  W.  S.  H.,  The  opinions  of,  22,  49 
(note).  His  reference  to  the  Ration- 
alists, 130.  His  reference  to  religious 
liberty,  84. 

Leibnitz,  The  doctrine  of,  36. 

Leroux,  Pierre,  The  system  of,  115. 


338 


INDEX. 


Lewes,  G.  H.,  The  writings  of,  in 
America,  214. 

Lindsey,  Rev.  Th.,  his  leaving  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  84. 

Littre,  The  opinion  of,  8.  The  Positive 
school  of,  138,  210,  321. 

Locke,  his  explanation  of  mental  phe- 
nomena, 23.  The  Sensational  school 
of,  24-26,  29.  •  Influenced  by  preju- 
dice, 85.  Priestley  a  disciple  of,  85. 
The  theology  of,  164.  The  philosophy 
of,  184,  185. 

Lollards,  The  old  leaven  of,  16.  Attempts 
to  connect  Unitarianism  with  the,  82. 

Lily  Cottage,  The  ashes  of  Chunder  Sen 
deposited  in,  283. 

Longfellow,  his  place  in  American  litera- 
ture, 170,  181. 

Longfellow,  Samuel,  The  hymns  of,  174. 
His  fidelity  to  old  opinions,  213. 

Low,  A.,  The  profession  of  faith  of,  185. 

Lucretius,  the  Materialism  of,  319. 

Luther,  The  Reform  inaugurated  by,  16, 

313- 

Lyell,  Sir  Ch. ,  his  service  to  science,  28. 

The   funeral   of,    65.      His   sympathy 

with  Mr.  Voysey,  105,  112. 
Lytton,  his  rule  in  India,  252  (note). 


MacDonald,  Rev.,  The  liberal  opinions 

of,  78. 
Madhava,  an  Indian  reformer,  229. 
Maine,  Sir  H.  Sumner,  his  bill  relating 

to    Hindu    marriages,    248-250.     His 

speech  at  Calcutta,  306. 
Man,  Singh,  The  Rajah,  231. 
Mansel,   Dean,   referred   to   by  Mr.  F. 

Harrison,  142  (note). 
Mariano,  the  higher  thought  of,  3. 
Martineau,   Dr.  James,  a  Unitarian,  3. 

Quoted  from,  29,  30,  54.      Compared 

with  Dean  Stanley,  66.      His  opinion 

of   existing   theological   changes,    78. 

Reference  to  works  of,  86,  87  (notes). 

His  "Ten  Services," 91,  105.    Interest 

in   "Free  Christian"  movement,   95. 

Channing's  letter  to,   170.     A  leader 

in  the  new  theology,  317. 


Materialism,  Materialists,  a  monistic  sol- 
ution of  the  world,  52.  Relation  to 
Spiritualism,  201.  Quarrel  with  re- 
ligion, 214.  Remain  Idealists  in  India, 
299.  The  old  physiological,  317.  The, 
of  Epicurus,  319. 
Maximus,  of  Tyre,  his  Platonic  philo- 
sophy, 11.  The  enlightened  opinions 
of,  288. 
May,  Thomas  Erskine,  his  history,  26, 

32  (notes). 
Medard,  St.,  The  contortions  of,  14. 
Methodists,  The,  their  numbers,  59.    The 
origin  of  and  condition,  74,  75.     Mr. 
Conway's  connection  with,  119.     Re- 
lative position  in  America,  203.    Move- 
ment of  thought  among,  205. 
Miall,  Rev.  W.,  connected  with  "  Free 

Christian"  movement,  95. 
Middleton,  The  liberal  theology  of,  25. 
Mill,  J.   Stuart,  The  psychology  of,  39, 
40.     Positivists  of  the  school  of,  119, 
138.     His  modification  of  Posivitism, 
133.     The  school  of,  321. 
Milton,  The  theological  opinions  of,  84. 
Missions,  Christian,  in  India,  their  want 

of  success,  302. 

Mohammed,  Mohammedanism,  the  spirit 

of,   14.     Mussulman  inspiration  from, 

144.      Compared  with  Buddha,   &c, 

185,  187,  257.      An  Asiatic  faith,  191, 

251.     Accepted  Christ  as  a  prophet, 

277.      Chunder  Sen  and  the  name  of, 

280.  The  position  of  in  India,  300-305. 

Moses,  Mr.  Conway  and  name  of,  126. 

Comte  and  name  of,  132.     Compared 

with   Mohammed,   &c. ,    185.        Ram 

Mohun    Roy's    veneration   for,    233. 

Chunder  Sen  and  name  of,  280. 

Moleschott,  his  words  and  influence,  219. 

Monotheism,   The   natural,   among    the 

Deists,  24.     The  introduction  of  among 

the  Hebrews,  29.      Among  reformed 

Jews,    117.      The   strict,   of  the   first 

Evangelists,   169.     A  return  to,  221. 

The  rigid,  of  the  Mohammedans,  &c, 

230  et  seq.     Of  the  West,  309.     The 

Semitic,  311. 

Montaigne,  The  statement  of,  3. 

Montefiore,     Claude,    his    article,     117 

(note).       His    opinions    of   reformed 

Judaism,  1 18. 


INDEX. 


339 


Montesquieu,  his  estimate  of  religion  in 

England,  152. 
Moravian  Brethren,  their  numbers,  77. 
Morrison,  J.   Cotter,  The  Comtism  of, 

136. 
Mormons,  The,  the  places  of  worship  of, 

77- 
Morse,    Rev.    Dr.,    his    charge    against 

liberal  ministers,  162. 
Mott,   Lucretia,  the   Transcendentalism 

of,  202. 
Miiller,  Prof.  Max,  his  reference  to  Indian 

faiths,  228  (note),  310.     His  sympathy 

with  Chunder  Sen,  281.      His  opinion 

of  the  common  basis  of  religions,  317. 
Mussulmans,  The  Deity  of,  226.   Claimed 

the  body  of  Kabir,  230.     The  Indian, 

301. 


Namkaran,  The  choice  of  a  name,  245. 

Nanak  Shah,  his  efforts  at  religious  re- 
form, 230.     The  services  of,  257. 

National  Secular  Society,  The  Free- 
thinkers of,  298. 

Native  Marriage  Act,  passed  to  satisfy 
the  Brahmos,  250.  Keshub's  disregard 
of,  264. 

Nava,  Bidhan  (The  New  Dispensation), 
reference  to,  238  (note).  The  syn- 
cretism of,  273-289.  Relation  to  the 
Sadharan  Somajes,  293,  294.  Descrip- 
tion of,  by  the  Brahmo  Public  Opinion, 
306.  Chunder  Mozoumdar's  apology 
for,  311.  Doctrine  of  hermetic  chain 
in,  322. 

Neal,  his  history  referred  to,  17  (note). 

Newman,  Cardinal,  one  of  the  Trac- 
tarians,  62.  Enters  the  Roman  Church 
within  ten  years,  63.  Opposes  per- 
secution of  the  Jews,  80  (note). 

Newman,  Prof.  F.  W.,  a  representative 
of  Theism,  30.  Joins  Unitarian  As- 
sociation, 87.  The  career  of  in  Syria, 
303- 

Newton,  The  generalization  of,  28.  The 
theological  opinions  of,  84.  The  mind 
of,  178  (note). 
Newton,  Rev.  Heber,  his  admiration  of 
Emerson,  172.  The  new  views  of, 
317. 


Northbrook,  Lord,  his  estimate  of  Brah- 
moism,  252. 

Ochino,  Bernard,  The  proscription  of, 
18. 

Olcott,  Col.  H.,  his  connection  with  the 
Theosophical  Society,  296,  297  (note). 

Old  Catholics,  mentioned  by  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, 4. 

Owen,  Robert  Dale,  his  connection  with 
the  Free  Religious  Association,  202. 

Paganism,  ancient,  The  believers  in,  4, 
48,  49.  Mr.  Savage's  definition  of, 
218.  Its  comprehensiveness  in  the 
time  of  Alexander  Severus,  320.  The 
place  of,  323. 
Paine,  Thomas,  his  influence  in  America, 

209. 
Paley,   the  liberalized  theology  of,   25. 
The  teleological  combination  of,  39. 
Pantheism,     Pantheists.     The    negative 
position  of,  4.     A  form  of,  held  by 
Servetus,    18.      The    Brahminic,    41. 
The  hour  of,  struck,  48.      Its  philo- 
sophic conception,  52.    Idealistic,  held 
by   advanced   religious    teachers,    88. 
Emerson's,    171.       Hindu,    227-233. 
Chunder  Sen's  estimate  of,  260,  274. 
Opinion  of,  by  Sadharan  Somaj,  305. 
The  ancient,  311. 
Parker,  Theodore,  from  John  Robinson 
to,  160.     His  Transcendental  opinions 
and  teaching,  174-185.   Church  erected 
to  memory  of,  214.     Chunder  Sen,  and 
280.     The  eloquent  pen  of,  303.     His 
position  in  the  Transcendental  move- 
ment, 315. 
Parsees,   the  differences  of,   with  Brah- 
mans,  249.     But  few  in  number,  300. 
The  sacred  books  of,  309. 
Parris,  George  Van,  The  martyrdom  of, 

19- 
Pasteur,  a  vice-president  of  the  British 

Secular  Union,  150 
Pattison,  Mark,  his   description  of  the 

Positivist  service,  135. 
Paul,  St.,  compares  the  earth  to  a  taber- 
nacle, 28.    The  writings  of,  194.    His 
bearing  towards  the  Athenians,  113. 


340 


INDEX. 


Quoted  from,  by  Mr.  Conway,  121. 
Comte's  use  of  name,  132.  His  view 
of  Christ,  322.     Another  needed,  324. 

Pease,  Mr.,  The  election  of,  34. 

Peculiar  People,  The,  their  notoriety,  77. 

Penn,  William,  his  charter,  159. 

Philo,  The  Logos  of,  322. 

Picton,  J.  Allanson,  The  opinions  of,  97 
(note). 

Pierpont,  John,  his  Transcendentalism, 
174. 

Pillon,  M.,  his  description  of  the  hymn 
to  Varuna,  237  (note). 

Plato,  admired  by  the  Transcendenta- 
lists,  174.     The  school  of,  321. 

Playfair,  his  influence  on  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Genesis,  28. 

Plymouth  Brethren,  The,  their  exclusive 
claim,  77. 

Potter,  W.  J.,  is  made  secretary  of  the 
Free  Religious  Association,  187.  His 
religious  opinions,  190,  191  (note). 
Comparison  of  words  with  Mr.  Bee- 
cher's,  205.  The  followers  of,  210. 
His  estimate  of  the  future,  &c,  213- 
215.  The  lectures  of,  220.  His  defi- 
nition of  God,  221.  His  Free  Congre- 
gation, 317. 

Frakriti,  the  primordial  substance  of 
things,  307. 

Pramada  Dasa  Mittra,  Prof.,  his  defence 
of  Vedantine  philosophy,  299  (note). 

Prarthanas  Somajes,  their  aim  and  posi- 
tion, 293,  305. 

Presbyterianism  and  Presbyterians,  in 
Elizabeth's  time,  21.  Their  numbers, 
59.  The  Calvinism  of,  76.  Progress 
among,  78,  205.  Their  part  in  the 
overthrow  of  Charles  the  First,  156. 
Relative  position  in  America,  203. 
Resemblance  to  neo-Brahmos,  245. 
The  advanced,  315. 

Pitakas,  The  literary  treasures  of,  309. 

Prescott,  The  Transcendentalism  of,  181. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  his  views  of  Revelation, 
85.     The  sensational  theology  of,  185. 

Pritchard,  Andrew,  one  of  Mr.  Voysey's 
committee,  1 12. 

Proclus,  The  great  religious  aims  of,  288. 

Protab  Chunder  Mozoumdar,  his  mess- 
ages from  the  Transcendentalists,  202. 
His  description  of  Theism,  241.      Of 


the  Brahmostabs,  246.  Complains  of 
Keshub's  tendencies,  263.  Explains 
the  New  Dispensation,  275,  287,  311. 
His  claim,  294  (note).  His  preaching 
in  England,  303.  Conversation  with 
Tyndall,  310. 
Puranas,  the  popular  Bible  of  the  Hindus, 

237- 

Puritans,  The,  their  looking  to  the  primi- 
tive Church,  85.  In  New  England, 
155,  160.  Mr.  Potter's  Church  and 
the,  190.  Influences  unknown  to, 
206.     The,  of  Islamism,  301. 

Pusey,  Dr.,  his  name  associated  with 
Tractarian  movement,  62. 

Putnam,  Dr.,  the  address  of,  220. 

Pym,  his  view  of  Church  and  State,  17. 

Pythagoras,  admired  by  Bronson  Alcott, 
174. 


Quakers,  or  Friends,  The,  their  opposi- 
tion  to  ecclesiasticism,  21.  The  per- 
secution of,  32.  The  affirmation  of, 
34.  Their  numbers,  77.  Their  colon- 
ization of  Pennsylvania,  155.  Ex- 
cluded from  New  England,  177.  The 
liberal  position  of,  187,  202,  315. 

Queensberry,  Lord,  the  connection  of, 
with  British  Secular  Union,  150. 

Quinet,  Edgar,  his  opinion  of  the  Brah- 
mans,  237. 


Raj  Narain  Bose,  his  ability,  &c,  293. 
President  of  the  Adi  Somaj,  304.  His 
work,  305  (note). 

Ram  Mohun  Roy,  the  founder  of  Brah- 
moism,  226.  His  descent,  labours, 
and  character,  231-235.  Nature  of 
his  organization,  236.  His  family 
similar  to  Chunder  Sen's,  241.  The 
work  of,  &c,  291-293.  His  statement 
respecting  Christianity,  303. 

Ramanda,  the  philosopher,  230. 

Ramanuja,  a  Hindu  Reformer,  229. 

Ramsey,  Mr.,  his  connection  with  The 
Free-thinker,  32  (note). 

Rawlinson,  Mr.  G.  F.,  his  statistics  of 
Catholicism,  63  (note). 

Rawson,  Mr.  L.,  the  Free-thinkers'  Re- 
port, 201  (note). 


INDEX. 


341 


Renan,  Ernest,  The  constructive  ten- 
dency of,  3.  His  lecture,  90  (note). 
The  religiousness  of,  143  (note).  A 
Vice-President  of  the  British  Secular 
Union,  150. 

Renouvier,  The  constructive  tendency 
of,  3- 

Reville,  Albert,  An  article  by,  64  (note). 
His  opinion  of  Calvin  and  the  Divinity 
of  Christ,  85. 

Reynolds,  The  work  of,  69,  70  (note). 

Ripley,  George,  The  Transcendentalism 
of,  174.  His  fortune  spent,  181.  The 
fidelity  of,  to  old  opinions,  213. 

Ripon,  Lord,  The  rule  of,  in  India,  252. 

Robespierre,  The  failure  of,  25. 

Robinson,  John,  his  address  to  the  first 
emigrants,  156.  The  continuous  de- 
velopment from,  160. 

Rosencranz,  Professor,  The  death  of,  211. 

Rothschild,  Lionel  de,  his  election  an- 
nulled, 34. 

Rousseau  developed  Deism  in  France,  25. 


Sabellius,  The  opinions  of,  18  (note). 

Sacchidananda,  the  Vedantine  Trinity, 
279. 

Sadharan  Somaj,  A  description  of,  238 
(note).  The  secessions  of,  269,  291. 
The  constitution  of  270.  Takes  up 
cause  of  true  Brahmoism,  273.  A 
critique  of  Keshub  by  the  missionary  of, 
284.  Its  congregations,  293.  Agree- 
ment with  the  other  Somajes,  304. 

Safford,  Mary  A.,  a  ministress,  194. 

Salar  Yung,  his  good  influence,  302. 

Salter,  W.,  his  work  for  the  Society  of 
Ethical  Culture,  194. 

Sandemanians,  see  Glassites. 

Sankhya,  The  school,  307. 

Sargent,  John  J.,  connection  with  Free 
Religious  Association,  202. 

Savage,  Rev.  M.  J.,  his  Unitarianism,  3. 
The  broad  views  of,  195,  202.  His 
desire  to  harmonize  religion  and  evo- 
lution, 214-221,  317. 

Shelley,  The  religiousness  of,  143  (note). 

Schelling,  his  theory  of  the  Trinity,  64. 
His  philosophical  ideas,  &c,  167,  168. 

Schiller,  his  estimate  of  scepticism,  150 
(note). 


Schliermacher,  The  works  of,  in  America, 

168.  His  ideas  of  religion,  167. 
Secularists,  Secularism,  The  negative 
position  of,  4.  The  rudimentary  wor- 
ship of,  6.  The  aims  and  character 
of,  147-152.  Their  opinions  in  India, 
298. 
Seekers,  The,  their  anti-ecclesiasticism, 

21. 
Seeley,  Professor  J. ,  his  work,  "Natural 
Religion,"  47.      The  stand-point  of, 
49. 
Seneca,  The  enlightened  aims  of,  288. 
Schopenhauer,  The  opinions  of,  adopted, 

309  (note). 
Servetus,    Michael,  his  heretical  views, 
18,  19.     Sent  to  the  stake,  67  (note). 
His  idea  of  Christ,  85. 
Shafites,  a  school  of  Islamism,  301. 
Shaftesbury,  Lord,  The  natural  Mono- 
theism of,  24. 
Shakers,  The,  see  Jumpers. 
Shiites,  a  Mohammedan  sect,  300,  301. 
Shakespeare,   The  works  of,  41.      Mr. 
Conway  and  the  name  of,    126.      A 
Comtist  month  dedicated  to,  132. 
Schradha,  a  Hindu  funeral  service,  245. 
Schunemann-Pott,   his  interest  in  Free 

Religion,  202. 
Sidgwick,  Professor,  The  opinions  of,  53. 
Sikhs,  The,  their  origin,  231.    Their  pre- 
sent character,  300. 
Simon     the     Magician,     The    wonders 

wrought  by,  321. 
Siva,   the   god   personifying   destructive 

agencies,  234.     The  trident  of,  2S0. 
Sivanath  Sastri,  The  New  Dispensation 
described  by,  270,  277,   305  (notes). 
His  description  of  Keshub,  284. 
Slade,  The  wonders  wrought  by,  321. 
Smith,  Joe,  The  badge  of,  321. 
Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  formed  by 
Mr.  Adler,   191,  192.     Its  aims,  193. 
A  branch  of,   at  Chicago,    194.     Its 
practical  stand-point,  314. 
Socinianism,    Biddle  and  the  doctrines 
of,    82.      Dangerous    to   preach,    84. 
Forms  one  extreme  of  Unitarianism, 
89.     Readily   followed   Arminianism, 
160. 
Sofis   of  Persia,    288.      Their   Mystico- 
Pantheistic  doctrine,  301. 


342 


INDEX. 


Sonnesheim,  Rabbi  S.  W.,  connects  Free 
Religion  with  Reformed  Judaism,  200. 

Souni  Sax,  its  philosophic  Nihilism,  299. 

Southcote,  Johanna,  The  believers  in,  77. 

Spears,  Rev.  Robt.,  The  Unitarian  Mar- 
tyrology  published  by,  82.  The  origin 
of  half  the  Unitarian  Churches  accord- 
ing to,  93.  His  estimate  of  the  Ameri- 
can Churches,  202,  205. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  his  conception  of  an 
omnipresent  Power,  8,  50.  Identifies 
"force"  and  "energy,"  36  (note).  The 
philosophical  system  of,  39-46.  All  our 
conceptions  symbols,  according  to,  71, 
322.  The  writings  of,  88.  His  belief 
in  the  kinship  between  man  and  the 
Unknowable,  101.  Positivists  hostile 
to  the  writings  of,  138-145.  His  doc- 
trines developed  by  Professor  Fiske  and 
Mr.  Savage,  214-220.  His  philosophy 
not  materialistic,  307.  Views  of  the 
evolutionists  in  harmony  with,  317. 

Socrates,  use  of  name  by  Mr.  Conway, 
126.  By  Chunder  Sen,  280.  For- 
merly reviled  by  Christians,  285. 

Spiritualism  and  Spiritualists,  their  con- 
nection with  the  Free  Religious  As- 
sociation, 187.  Their  numbers,  &c, 
200-202.     The  statement  of  a,  212. 

Spinoza,  The  religiousness  of,  143  (note.) 

Stanley,  Dean,  his  words  at  Sir  C. 
Lyell's  funeral,  65.  Opinions  of,  com- 
pared with  Dr.  Martineau's,  66.  The 
sincerity  of,  68.  The  liberality  of,  79. 
His  sympathy  with  Mr.  Voysey,  1 1 2. 
His  generous  opinion  of  Chunder  Sen, 
281.  His  reference  to  the  reconcili- 
ation of  science  and  revelation,  320. 

Stebbins,  G.  B.,  his  statement  about 
Spiritualists,  201. 

Stephen,  Fitzjames,  introduces  "Brahmo 
Marriage  Act,"  249,  250. 

Stewart,  Balfour,  his  return  to  neo- 
Platonism,  50,  322.     The  large  views 

of,  317. 

Stansfield,  Judge,    a   supporter   of  Mr. 

Voysey,  112. 
Stephens,    Sir   James,    his   part   in   the 

Spencer-Harrison     controversy,  .  J.43 

(note). 
Strauss,  the  naturalistic  idealism  of,  214. 


Suetonius,  his  allusion  to  the  Jewish 
quarter  in  Rome,  323. 

Suffield,  Rev.  R.  R.,  his  sermon  :  "Why 
I  became  a  Unitarian,"  99. 

Sully,  Mr.  James,  his  article  on  evolu- 
tion, 50-54. 

Sumner,  Charles,  The  Transcendentalism 
of,  180. 

Sunnites,  The,  their  allegiance  to  the 
Sultan,  300.  Their  views  of  inspira- 
tion, 301. 

Swedenborgians,  their  congregations,  79. 
Origin  of  the,  319. 


Tabernacle  Ranters, Theeccentricity  of,  14 

Taine,  M.,  his  description  of  Deism  in 
France,  25  (note).  Traces  present 
current  of  thought  to  Germany,  36. 

Tait,  Prof.  P.  J.,  The  neo-Platonism  of, 
50,  322.  A  representative  of  English 
science,  317. 

Tattva  Bodhini  Sabha,  a  Brahmoist  as- 
sociation, 235,  238. 

Tayler,  J.  J.,  his  work  referred  to,  17, 
21,  29,  30  (notes).  Dr.  Martineau's 
introduction  to  the  work  of,  54. 
Work  referred  to,  78,  82  (notes). 

Taylor,  Rev.  J.,  The  advanced  opinions 
of,  92. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  his  connection  with  the 
Latitudinarian  party,  19,  20. 

Temple,  Dr.,  a  writer  in  Essays  and  Re- 
views, 65.     The  sincerity  of,  68. 

Temple,  Sir  Richard,  the  reference  of, 
to  Hindu  sects,  294,  308. 

Test  Act,  The,  its  injustice  to  Dissenters, 

34- 
Theism,  the  eclectic  of  India,  6.  The 
school  of  in  England,  30,  87,  257, 
288,  316.  Rejected  by  Spencer,  43,. 
45.  The  principles  of,  and  evolution, 
50.  A  vague  form  of,  accepted,  55. 
Mr.  Voysey's,  107,  117.  Mr.  Con- 
way's advance  beyond,  120.  The 
great  axioms  of,  169,  314.  Mr.  Adler 
accepts  foundation  of,  192.  Protab 
Chunder  Mozoumdar's  description  of, 
242.  The  Sadharan  Somaj  and,  270. 
Described  by  Raj  Narain  Bose,  304. 
The  Transcendental,  of  Brahmoism, 
307.     A  personal  faith,  315. 


INDEX. 


343 


Theophilanthropes,  The,  the  compre- 
hensive aims  of,  103. 

Theosophical  Society  of  New  York,  The, 
its  claims,  295.  Of  India,  the  pro- 
pogandism  of,  297. 

Thomson,  James,  his  description  of 
Secularism,  147,  149  (note). 

Tiberius,  the  government  of,  323. 

Tindal,  The  natural  Monotheism  of,  24. 

Tocqueville,  The  prediction  of,  221. 

Transcendentalism,  The  phase  of,  passed 
through  in  America,  6.  Name  given 
by  Americans,  165,  257.  The  des- 
cription of,  168-1S5.  Represented  in 
the  Free  Religious  movement,  202. 
The  happy  influence  of,  213,  285. 
The  method  of,  288.  The  fate  of, 
316.     Its  trust  in  conscience,  322. 

Trinity,  the  dogma  attacked  in  Italy,  18 
(note).  Omitted  by  Antoine  Corrano, 
19.  The  theory  of,  and  Coleridge,  64. 
Dean  Stanley  and  Dr.  Martineau's 
view  of,  66.  Unitarian  revolt  against, 
81,  161.  The  Vedantine,  277.  The 
mystery  of,  302. 

Tri-Pitaka,  the  teachings  of,  297,  309. 

Tubingen,  The  school  of,  its  negative 
criticism,  29. 

Tudor,  Mary,  The  Protestants  proscribed 
by,  21. 

Tyndall,  Prof.,  his  estimate  of  the  re- 
ligious question,  I.  The  Belfast  ad- 
dress of,  46.  His  sympathy  with  per- 
secuted Jews,  80.  His  description  of 
Emerson.  172.  Influence  of,  in  Amer- 
ica, 214.  His  conversation  with  Chun- 
der  Mozoumdar,  311.    His  large  views, 

317- 

Tulloch,  Principal,  the  work  of  referred 
to,  20  (note). 


Underwood,  Mrs.  Sarah  A. ,  her  view  of 
religious  speculation,  210. 

Underwood,  Mr.  B.  F.,  an  editor  of  the 
Index,  187.  The  Agnosticism  of,  195. 
His  views  of  the  spread  of  the  evolu- 
tion doctrine,  214. 

Unitarian  General  Conference,  held  at 
Liverpool  and  Birmingham,  97. 

Unitarian  National  Conference  in  Ame- 
rica,   its   concession  to  Universalists, 


186.  Messrs.  Potter  and  Abbot's 
secession  from,   194-196. 

Unitarianism,  Unitarians,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's classification  of,  4.  The  origin 
of,  22.  Passed  through  by  Coleridge, 
26.  The  profession  of,  a  blasphemy, 
32.  The  numbers  of,  59.  Represented 
at  the  banquet  given  to  Professor 
Kuenen,  65  (note).  The  position  of, 
67>  77-  General  description  of,  81- 
102.  The  methods  of,  126.  The 
growth  and  character  of,  in  America, 
161-186.  Its  relation  to  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Association,  194-198,  202.  Its 
revolt  against  orthodox  dogmas,  221. 
Rev.  W.  Adams  converted  to,  233. 
Chunder  Sen's  reference  to,  277.  Its 
relation  to  Brahmoism,  303.  Its  un- 
dogmatic  church,  313.  The  advanced, 
315.     Their  view  of  Jesus,  322. 

Universalists,  The  classification  of,  4. 
Their  doctrine,  77,  161. 

Upanishads,  religious  readings  from,  233, 
235.     The  authors  of,  288. 


Vachaspati  Misra,  his  philosophy,  307. 

Vallabhacarya,  a  Hindu  reformer,  229. 

Vedanta,  The  Pantheism  of,  227.  Its 
two  doctrines,  233.  The  adherents  of, 
296. 

Vedas,  Mr.  Conway's  extracts  from,  221. 
The  hymns  of,  227.  Their  esoteric  texts, 
234.  The  direct  breath  of  God,  236. 
Women  according  to,  249.  Chunder 
Sen's  reference  to,  281.  The  infalli- 
bility of,  294.  The  traditions  of,  297. 
The  treasures  in,  309. 

Vicence,  an  association  in  Italy,  18. 

Vishnu,  Buddha  an  incarnation  of,  228 
The  worshippers  of,  229,  231.  Per 
sonifies  the  world's  preservative  forces 
234,  237.  Chunder  Sen's  early  worship 
of,  241.  Hari,  a  personification  of, 
275.  The  worship  of,  276.  The  ec 
Iecticism  of,  277. 

Voltaire,  carries  Deism  into  France,  25 
His  reference  to  English  sects,  57 
Use  of  name  by  Mr.  Conway,  126 
The  criticisms  of,  209. 

Voysey,  Rev.  Ch.,  The  Theism  of,  3 
His   Church   and   teaching,    104- 1 13 


344 


INDEX. 


His  retention  of  prayers  for  Queen,  &c, 
121.  His  Church  compared  with  Mr. 
Conway's,  127.  The  isolated  position 
of,  315.     The  large  views  of,  317. 


Wahabis,  a  Mussulman  sect  of  recent  ori- 
gin, 300,  301. 

Walker,  James,  The  philosophical  views 
of  168. 

Wallace,  his  theory  of  natural  selection, 
37,  38.  A  representative  of  English 
science,  317. 

Walters,  Rev.  F.,  his  address  on  the  pro- 
gress of  Rationalism,  79.  The  views 
of,  92. 

Ware,  Dr.,  his  position  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, 161. 

Wasson,  his  fidelity  to  Transcendent- 
alism, 213.     The  writings  of,  220. 

Watts,  Ch.,  The  secular  liturgy  of,  150. 

Webster,  Daniel,  his  position  as  an  ora- 
tor, 181. 

Weiss,  John,  his  Transcendentalism,  174. 
His  connection  with  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  202. 

Welchman,  The  heresy  of,  82. 

Wesley,  John,  The  influence  of,  26.  The 
Methodists  sprang  from,  74.  The 
hymns  of,  99.  The  God  of,  and  Mr. 
Voysey's  services,  108. 

Wette,  De,  The  writings  of,  studied,  168. 

Whitfield,  The  influence  of,  26. 


Whittier,  The  poetry  of,  180. 

Wicksteed,  Rev.  P.  H.,  his  translation  of 
Dutch  works,  91. 

Wightman,  The  martyrdom  of,  19. 

Wilberforce,  his  connection  of  Armini- 
anism  with  Deism,  160. 

Williams,  Professor  Monier,  The  opin- 
ions of,  referred  to,  227,  229,  296,  303 
(notes).  His  description  of  Hinduism, 
228.  His  estimate  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy, 
232. 

Williams,  Roger,  founds  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island,  159,  189. 

Williams,  Roland,  The  sincerity  of,  68. 

Winnebrenner,  John,  The  followers  of, 
205. 

Wise,  Rabbi  Isaac,  his  connection  with 
the  Free  Religionists,  202. 

Woolston,  The  natural  Monotheism  of, 
24.     The  loss  of  his  Fellowship,  84. 

Wordsworth,  The  religiousness  of,  143. 
The  Transcendentalism  of,  168. 

Wycliff,  The  aspirations  of,  &c,  16. 


Yoga,  The  teachings  of,  262  (note).     Its 
nature  and  influence,  305,  306. 


Zend  Avesta,  readings  borrowed  from, 

245.     The  treasures  of,  309. 
Zoroaster,  his  equality  with  Moses,  &c, 

185.     The  religion  of,  300. 


OPINIONS     OF    THE     PRESS 


ON 


THE     WORK     IN     THE     ORIGINAL. 


LIBRAIRIE     EUROPEENNE     C.     MUQUARDT 

MERZBACH   &   FALK,    EDITEURS 

LIBRARIES  DU  ROI  ET  DE  S.  A.  R.  LE  COMTE  DE  FLANDRE 
45,  RUE  DE  LA  REGENCE,  A  BRTJXELLES. 


U  EVOLUTION  RELIGIEUSE 

CONTEMPORAINE 

CHEZ  LES  ANGLAIS,  LES  AMERICAINS  &  LES  HINDOUS 


PAR 


Le  comte  GOBLET  D'ALVIELLA 

Professeur  d'histoire  des  religions  a  l'Universite  de  Bruxelles 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 

"Will  be  read  with  interest  both  in  England  and  in  America." — The  Athenaum. 
,  "  A  careful  and  interesting  book." — Saturday  Reveiw. 

"His  study  of  the  various  divisions  of  religious  England  was  evidently  intel- 
ligent, close  and  liberal."— British  Quarterly  Review. 

"The  best  summary  of  Brahmic  history  accessible  to  non-Oriental  readers  and 
marked  throughout  by  an  earnest  desire  to  present  a  faithful  picture  of  the  reality." 
— Miss  S.  D.  Collet,  Modern  Review. 

"A  minute  yet  vivid  picture."  — Christian  Life. 

"Worthy  of  the  highest  praise,  rich  in  instruction  and  very  interesting."— 
Inquirer. 

"  Elaborate,  comprehensive,  accurate  and  impartial."— Rod.  Suffield,  Chris- 
tian Herald. 

"The  first  of  its  kind."— The- Jewish  World. 

"The  author  possesses  surprising  knowledge."—  The  Nation,  of  New  York. 

"  Strong  in  statistics  and  other  details,  rich  in  original  generalisations  and  lucid 
conceptions,  and  singularly  tolerant,  devout  and  hopeful  in  its  spirit,  the  book  must 
be  read  carefully  from  beginning  to  end,  in  order  to  gain  any  fair  idea  of  its  rare 
merit." — Boston  Index. 

"Of  deep  interest  to  the  philanthropist  and  thinker. "—Boston  Commonwealth. 

"Lucid,  genial,  altogether  fine  and  fascinating."— N.  Gilman,  Christian 
Register.'" 


IV. 

"  A  really  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  modern  thought;  especially 
welcome  to  the  Indian  reader  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  religious  evolution 
actually  occurring  in  our  midst,  but  which  we,  therefore,  do  not  properly  appreciate." 
—  Times  of  India. 

"We  conclude  with  the  hope  that  some  able  writer  would  translate  the  book 
into  English  and  unfold  its  perspicacity  and  its  beauty  to  everyone  of  our  readers." 
Indian  Messenger. 

"Tells  us  all  we  want  to  know  on  the  subject." — The  Liberal,  of  Calcutta. 

"  Les  chapitres  sur  le  rationalisme  americain  et  sur  le  rationalisme  hindou,  outre 
ce  qu'ils  contiennent  de  renseignements  qui  seront  pour  le  lecteur  europeen  de 
veritables  revelations,  sont  en  meme  temps  autant  de  chapitres  de  critique  et  de 
philosophic  d'une  grande  portee  qui  constituent  des  a  present,  comme  on  dit,  des 
documents  du  plus  rare  interet  pour  l'histoire  religieuse  contemporaine." — Revue 
des  Detix  Mondes. 

"  Montre  que  les  questions  d'histoire  contemporaine,  quand  on  sait  se  degager 
des  passions  de  parti  et  les  remplacer  par  la  haute  curiosite  d'un  esprit  desireux  de 
comprendre,  prennent  un  interet  et  une  signification  qu'on  ne  leur  soupconnait  pas. 
Cette  etude  de  la  religion  contemporaine,  saisie  dans  les  tressaillements  de  sa  vie 
quotidienne,  est  d'une  haute  portee." — Maurice  Vernes,  Revue  de  Vhistoire  des 
religions. 

"  C'est,  si  je  ne  me  trompe,  le  premier  travail  d' ensemble  qui  ait  encore  ete  fait 
sur  ce  grand  mouvement,  et  il  est  trace  avec  une  ampleur  de  lignes,  une  intelligence 
des  nuances,  une  clarte  et  une  simplicity  de  vues  que  la  critique  religieuse  de  nos 
jours  semblait  avoir  oubliees." — James  Darmesteter,  Revue  critique  d'histoire  et 
de  littcrature. 

"  Personne  ne  s'est  mieux  rendu  compte  de  la  gravite  de  la  crise  at  de  l'effet 
produit  sur  notre  generation  par  les  resultats  acquis  de  l'immense  mouvement 
scientifique  de  notre  siecle." — E.  DE  Pressense,  Revue  politique  et  litle'raire. 

"  Expose  avec  une  lumineuse  clarte  l'etat  religieux  de  l'Angleterre  et  de 
l'Amerique.  Aucun  ecrivain  francais  n'a  mieux  trace,  sans  confusion,  avec  un 
ordre  logique  et  facile  a  retenir,  ce  tableau  charge  de  tant  de  details." — E.  POUSSET, 
Polybiblion. 

"  Recit  fort  instructif." — A.  Boyenval,  La  Reforme  sociale. 

"A  le  rare  talent  d'exposer  brievement,  clairement  les  differents  systerhes 
philosophiques  ou  religieux  sans  les  mutiler." — La  Renaissance,  organe  des  Eglises 
rifortnees  de  France. 

"Impossible  de  faire  preuve  de  plus  d'objectivite,  de  plus  de  largeur  et  d'im- 
partialite." — Albert  Reville,  Correspond,  parisienne  de  la  Flandre  liberate.    ■ 

"  L'impartialite  de  la  critique  indique  assez  que  les  faits  ont  ete  bien  observes 
et  sincerement  exposes." — Rouxel,  Journal  des  Economistes. 

"  Destine  a  rendre  un  grand  service  a.  l'ceuvre  de  synthese  et  de  reconstruction 
apres  laquelle,  bien  que  peu  d'esprits  en  aient  conscience,  l'humanite  entiere  aspire." 
— Ch.  Fauvety,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  scientifique  cfetzides  psychologiques, 

"  Plein  de  faits,  ecrit  sans  parti  pris,  avec  une  grande  elevation  et  dans  une 
methode  toute  scientifique." — La  Nouvelle  Revue. 

"  Tres  important  ouvrage." — Revue  britannique. 

"  D'une  incontestable  utilite." — Journal  des  Debats. 

"  Du  plus  haut  interet  pour  tous  ceux  que  preoccupe  le  meme  probleme  de  la 
conciliation  de  la  religion  et  de  la  raison." — Journal  de  Geneve. 


"  Interessant,  riche  de  faits,  d'un  style  anime." — Gazette  de  Lausanne. 

"  C'est  ici  un  livre  pour  le  grand  public,  non  pas  seulement  pour  les  savants." — 
Jean  Reville,  V Alliance  liberate. 

"  Sera  lu  par  tous  les  esprits  eleves  auxquels  1'histoire  du  rationalisme  religieux 
ne  peut  etre  indifferente." — Independance  beige. 

"  Ce  livre  est  d'une  utilite  singuliere  et  dans  notre  pays  il  peut  rendre  de  grands 
services." — Flandre  liberate. 

"Ouvrage  serieux  et  considerable." — La  Gazette. 

"  II  n'y  aura  qu'une  voix  pour  admirer  la  lucidite  de  l'exposition  et  la  solide 
facture  d'un  style  eminemment  approprie  a.  l'expose  philosophique  et  religieux." — 
Echo  du  Parlement. 

"Attachant,  suggestif,  sincere  et  bien  ecrit;  tous  ceux  qui  voient  dans  l'avenir 
religieux  de  l'humanite  un  interet  primordial  ont  quelque  chose  a.  y  apprendre." — 
Athemeum  beige. 

"Marquera  une  date  dans  1'histoire  des  idees  religieuses  de  notre  temps." — 
La  Chronique. 

"  Dans  des  voyages  reiteres  en  Angleterre,  aux  Etats-Unis  et  aux  Indes,  l'auteur 
s'est  mis  en  communication  avec  les  chefs  des  principales  sectes  religieuses  de  ces 
pays.  Ses  observations  personnelles  lui  ont  permis  de  communiquer  a.  son  livre  cet 
interet  vif  et  piquant  d'une  description  faite  d'apres  nature." — La  Revue  catholique. 

"  Ce  livre  est  un  des  meilleurs  ouvrages  d'histoire  religieuse  qui  aient  paru  en 
ces  dernieres  annees.  Ecrit  dans  un  style  excellent,  correct,  elegant  et  d'une  tres 
belle  allure." — E.  de  Laveleye,  Bulletin  de  V  Acadcmie  royale. 

"  Ce  qui  ressort  du  livre  avec  une  clarte  sans  egale  c'est  que  la  religion  n'est  pas 
par  essence  refractaire  au  prcgres." — H.  Pergameni,  VAvenir. 

"Par  son  attrait  de  nouveaute,  par  le  talent  d'exposition  de  l'auteur,  par  1'ele- 
vation  et  la  sincerite  de  pensee  qui  y  eclatent  a  chaque  page,  il  laissera  une  trace 
profonde." — La  Meuse. 

"  Quel  tableau  instructif,  attrayant !  "—Journal  de  Liege. 

"Oeuvre  d'un  ecrivain  et  d'un  penseur." — Organe  de  Mom. 

"Tous  ont  quelque  chose  a.  apprendre  dans  ce  livre." — Gazette  de  Charleroi. 

"  Tres-interessant  ouvrage." — Professor  C.  P.  Tiele,  Manuel  de  Phistoire  des 
Religions,  2eme  edition. 

"  Beau  livre." — A.  Barth,  Bulletin  des  Religions  de  I'lnde,  18S5. 

"  Pages  eloquentes." — Professor  J.  Bonet-Maury,  Etude  sur  Akbar. 

"  Man  darf  das  hohe  Verdienst  des  Verfassers  nicht  verkennen." — Allg.  Zeitung 
des  fudentkums. 

"  Alle  Schilderungen  bieten  uns  deshalb  ebenso  zuverlassiges  als  schwerzugang- 
liches  material  fiir  die  neueste  Kirchengeschichte. — Literariscken  Centralbldller." 

"La  erudicion  del  libro  es  vasta  y  el  talento  conque  esta  escrito  inne  gable." — 
Revista  Contemporanea,  de  Madrid. 

"Rivela  grande  attitudine,  ingegno  e  studio  non  commune." — B.  Labanca, 
La  Ctiltura,  de  Rome. 

"  Een  merkwaardig  boek." — Het  Vaderland,  de  La  Haye. 


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